Summon AI

You have questions? We may have answers.

Moderators: Forum Moderators, Active DMs

Post Reply
BattleDrake
Posts: 224
Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2016 11:29 pm

Summon AI

Post by BattleDrake » Fri Jun 19, 2020 5:10 am

Has there been a recent change to summon AI? Whether from Arelith or Beamdogs end? Lately, i've been noticing some very out of the ordinary actions done by my summons.

As a player of mostly summoners for many years, there is definitely a difference in the way AI are acting now. A very bad difference that is becoming increasingly frustrating.

Not using the associate tool and working with radial commands, the summon appears to constantly get locked behind my character, whereas before it would usually path itself around to engage in combat. This requires me to switch to the associate tool to manually path it around. I -know- I never had to do this so frequently before. This happens far more than it ever did before.

Again using the radial menu, the summon doesn't follow the Attack Nearest as it did before. When I used to use it, it'd attack the creature that was right next to the summon, now it appears to focus on the next one further away(or maybe the one closer to my character; either way, it's not performing like it had in the past), which leaves it locked in place until again, I switch to the associate tool and manually target(But even that doesn't always work, i'll explain further down).

Using the associate tool no longer appears reliable, at all. When I target to attack, my summon will often just stand there dumbfounded or continues attacking the creature it was already attacking. This causes me to double check my logs to see if I had forgot to switch to summon control. I hadn't. So it just keeps doing what it was doing before, until I click repeatedly, or swap it to radial control. I can no longer -reliably- use the associate tool to have my companion attack the targets I wish, it's become unpredictable.

While still using the associate tool, the companion will sometimes run off to another attacker, as if still under radial command maybe? It'll jump targets like it's following guard me or attack nearest instead of staying on the target I selected it to attack. This causes it to move about, incurring attacks of opportunity, and puts myself in really frustrating situations. (Of course, I always double check my combat log to make sure i'm in summon control, that's the first thing I check, that's not the problem).

I know NWN AI has never been great, but it's never been this bad. Bad enough for me to come to the forums to ask about it. Something's wrong.

Recent Characters:
Aramis - "S'fine piece of art yer havin' there." (Shelved)
Eradyn - Trying to make the world a better place. (Shelved)
[Redacted] - ? (?)
Skek - Happiness in Endless Industry. (Rolled)


User avatar
-XXX-
Posts: 2113
Joined: Tue Oct 18, 2016 1:49 am

Re: Summon AI

Post by -XXX- » Fri Jun 19, 2020 9:15 am

I've noticed some issues with summons, some have always been there, others have become more apparent recently.

:arrow: There's always at least a round of inactivity from the summon when they get conjured (this might be a design feature, if that's the case, please confirm)
:arrow: Summons with spells sometimes can't decide whether to cast or attack resulting into awkward inactivity. Prompting them with the player tool seems to confuse them even further.
:arrow: Summons with spells that can't draw LOS to their target don't do anything
:arrow: Multiple summons (vamps, mummies, etc.) sometimes "stack onto each other" or the script gets confused about where a member of the group is placed at the moment. This further results in the following issues:
- pathfinding issues: the summon member(s) has trouble finding enemies on its own and needs to be constantly prompted with the player tool
- the summon member(s) gets ignored by AOE effects
:arrow: Toggling the player tool activation appears to make the summon(s) flat footed and forces them to waste a round of combat

chris a gogo
Posts: 473
Joined: Sat Mar 25, 2017 6:41 pm

Re: Summon AI

Post by chris a gogo » Fri Jun 19, 2020 11:19 am

Ive noticed this also.
I can't say the reason why but it tends to be summons with aura that are worse effected.
So water elemental and mummies tend to be much worse and stand around ignoring voice and radial commands.
Where as fire elementals ive never had an issue with.

User avatar
mirvv
Posts: 56
Joined: Tue May 19, 2020 2:21 pm

Re: Summon AI

Post by mirvv » Fri Jun 19, 2020 4:01 pm

Hi!

Maybe relocate this to bug forum. And also i join to this since my Tribals acting odd, not listens to the voice commands or just froze in following my character, the solution "player tool" is stuck somtimes also on the freezing in follow mode.
Characters:
"Papa" Rasma: ALT (merchant goblin of Golden Goblin Korporation)
Ashnodh: MAIN (wild goblin tribal of the Broke Tooth Clan)

Died/Rolled:
Murag, Rusmo, Rismu, Fivez, Ret, Galepen, Crab

Anomandaris
Posts: 436
Joined: Sun Oct 06, 2019 10:56 am

Re: Summon AI

Post by Anomandaris » Fri Jun 19, 2020 5:07 pm

Also can we add to this that certain types of summons try to murder you if you accidentally tag them with a spell or something...

User avatar
Drowble Oh Seven
Posts: 427
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2017 11:36 pm

Re: Summon AI

Post by Drowble Oh Seven » Sun Jun 28, 2020 6:56 am

I noticed the summon-muppetry got a bit more intense recently as well.

It's pure spitballing, but I wonder if the pathfinding optimisations mentioned in Dev Build 8173.1 update back in April didn't delve too deep and awaken bugs from where they slumbered beneath the earth.

Rico_scorpion
Posts: 242
Joined: Tue Mar 24, 2020 9:07 am

Re: Summon AI

Post by Rico_scorpion » Sun Jun 28, 2020 3:33 pm

Agreed.

A very crystal clear example:

Animal companion.
"Attack nearest".
Reaction? Runs off to attack the archers taking 10 aoo on the way.

It's relatively consistent from my very empirical experience.

(note: that's one problem among many. The AI has gotten so bad lately that it really attacks enjoyment of summon-classes)

Gazfrost
Posts: 95
Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2018 2:36 am

Re: Summon AI

Post by Gazfrost » Mon Jun 29, 2020 10:23 pm

I also been having problems telling my Shadow commands.. such as telling it to follow, instead it wants to attack, no matter how many times i try to command it to follow or stay it still want to continue attacking.

Post Reply