Some players are saying that the aggro is supposedly screwed up in this game because they are getting chased by 4 or 5 or 6 mobs or more from quote “very far away” and with seemingly “random and no logic to it.” And that it’s supposedly messed up because mobs will suddenly switch and go and attack another character.
I don’t think that people are really saying that mobs aggro randomly and no logic to it. I think what they mean is that some of the design choices in how aggro is determined feels like there is no logic to it. Multiple times while attacking creatures, I’ve had them turn and run and attack a nearby person who did nothing to the mob. Clearly the coding logic is that if the mob gets aggroed it incorporates things like distance and damage dealt, and at some point the distance outweighs the damage dealt and it results in the mob deciding to go after someone completely unrelated. People call this random because it should not logically work this way. Other times I’ve had mobs spawn right in front of me as I was looting and depending on what mobs they are, they would either instantly aggro me or just ignore me as I walk away. Obviously there is “logic” behind it as it is all code, but clearly the logic doesn’t fully make sense and isn’t consistent based on the mobs.
I think what’s happening here is that power levelers are reacting to something they don’t like, which is that sometimes multiple enemies are alerted at one time to something you do, and you have to respond to it. That doesn’t mean the aggro is broken. It just means that it’s working the way a good game works when the enemies work as a team just like the players do! Does that make the game harder? Yes. Does it mean it’s bad AI? NO. It’s just the opposite!
From a power leveler standpoint, we focus more on mob AI. Using things like elevation to force the retreating status, line of sighting mobs to force them to come closer, abusing large aggro ranges to gather entire groups and cc/aoes to gain more experience faster, gathering large groups of people to force high spawn rates (ok… this one was deemed abuse and shouldn’t be done… but power levelers think like this more than the average player). I’d say that it is people who are casually just completing the quests rather than those who know how to use it to their advantage that are the ones complaining.
Guys - I am both proud and bemused that a casual, non-PvP, immersive player like myself understands the aggro in this game better than you “MMO pros” do!
Here’s how this works. STOP PLAYING THIS GAME like it’s WoW!!!
No you clearly don’t understand, I don’t even think you understand the problem fully. Things like people using mob AI to snipe resource nodes, people who work all day and just want to play the game casually but have to deal with sniper mobs spawning in alarming numbers near certain quest points, people who don’t know how to dodge cancel to zip past mobs are more of the issue than someone who is powerlevelling and just wants to get to the next place as quickly as possible.
STOP pulling mobs! Stop treating quests and combat situations like you’re herding sheep into a corral where you try to nuke them with a mega-attack spell or something.
Do you not understand that the devs. made this game purposely MORE sophisticated in its aggro. and not less? And you’re totally missing it. Totally.
As someone who has levelled and farmed fast, I can guarantee that you can definitely still do this in this game. Easier with a tank obviously, but still possible without one.
I’ve been solo questing this game for over two weeks now. In doing so I’ve developed a keen sense of the “range” or “perimeter” of enemies and how they behave in reaction to what I specifically do. In other words, their sphere of influence that, if you go inside it you will get noticed and they will attack you.
If all you’re doing in this game is playing with friend or friends and you’re running around like a fool pulling groups of mobs behind you so that they’re all chasing you, you are not only missing out on how awesomely tactical and fun this game can really be, but you’re also sucking the very sould out of the game. You’re turning the game into a sad comedy that both breaks immersion for other players and well as for yourself. You’re sabotaging your own experience. And you don’t even realize it.
As this was originally designed to be a PvP game and the PvP aspect is massive in it, I could argue that you are the one sabotaging your own experience by playing solo…
Except that you should play the game how you like it and not tell other people to do so. It feels like you have a way you like playing it and then are pissed that other people don’t see the game the same way you do.
What you need to do in this game is NOT just run around like an efficiency spread sheet lunatic straight through a village and get everything to aggro and chase you. You actually need to be AWARE and move around in tactical ways so that you don’t aggro every single enemy in a village!
Why not? It works and I’m having fun doing it.
And by the way - pulling mobs reckelessly like that also messes with other players because a whole line of enemies will turn and ambush another character who is not even involved.
That is not a flaw in the design of the game. It’s a lack of courtesy and game awareness on the part of players.
Honestly these two paragraphs just sound like you saying “AGGRO IS FINE IN THIS GAME… And by the way, aggro is not fine because it will ambush another character and that is your fault for pulling a congo line and you should be more courteous.” You do understand that in this case the person who can easily run through mobs ignoring all of them probably has no issue with the aggro and it is the person who was beset by mobs being pulled by someone else from 100m away who has more of the issue with it.
If you bothered to take the time to actually enter a farming village and actually approach it like a real situation where you do some sneaking around the outer perimeter of some enemy’s sphere of influence, while realizing that you do need to sometimes go straight in and face other ones head on, you will understand that the aggro in this game is not only amazing but is actually way smarter than people are giving it credit for.
Why? When I can lead a congo line of mobs down the road and they just end up aggroing someone else anyways? Or more often than not, I jump onto a pillar and send them all retreating with an aoe if things get too out of hand due to the way retreating mechanics work.
I was playing tonight and I saw it happening all over the place. Your sitting there moving carefully from one building to the next, carefully carving a path to the next house so you only aggro maybe two enemies and you can handle fighting them, and then what happens? “Circusclown43” and his buddy “Crankmybank” come running through the village at full speed with 12 zombies chasing them. It’s total facepalm.
It sounds like you have a problem with aggro. Circusclown43 and Crankmybank are probably in a discord somewhere complaining about how T2 refining mats are more expensive that T1 refining mats or joining up with a group for Myrkguard or zerging down a territory. Meanwhile you’ve pulled your two mobs and can’t handle the fact that there are now 12 more. I can guarantee you that these same people will also only be pulling 1 or 2 mobs when they meet something they can’t actually run through like SM outdoor dungeons.
Bottom line in this. How about trying to not play the game to just get through it for once? How about not trying to constantly herd enemies into giant clusters so you can attempt to mass kill them to save time? How about not tyring to rush through every quest and actually play the game as an actual rpg character instead of a mindless bot trying to maximize efficiency in every single quest and every single combat?
Bottom line is this: let people play the game how they want and stop blaming people for pulling large groups. The aggro system is not “random” but due to hate calculations and large tether ranges, it results in some non-intuitive attacks.
