ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

It's needlessly frustrating to watch my escortees sprint away from "danger," as I chase them down, only to see them run into a gang of trolls, rattlesnakes, or worse. How about we make them stay no more than two or three tiles behind the player when they see a threat? Failing that, I'd honestly rather they just stand still whenever they see an enemy.

I understand that we're not necessarily supposed to save every single one, but seeing these guys spazz out and - literally - run halfway across the map to their likely death because they saw a non-rare poison ivy sitting seven tiles away from them is a fun-sucking experience. These quests should be difficult and not guaranteed wins, but an escortee's survival ought to be based on whether or not the player made a mistake - not some comically awful sense of self-preservation that's far more likely to kill them. The original AI was infinitely better than the way it is now, because it was so much easier to anticipate what they were going to do. And the original AI was awful.

Could we maybe program them to stay in the player's line of sight? It always frustrates me when they run out of it during a fight, because I have absolutely no clue what they're going to do after that.

Un67 wrote:Could we maybe program them to stay in the player's line of sight? It always frustrates me when they run out of it during a fight, because I have absolutely no clue what they're going to do after that.

Alternatively, the player should have some way of knowing where the escort is when they are out of sight.

You need to follow them when they run. It's stupid and it sucks for melee, but it's the only way.

I preferred it when they charged at enemies they saw. One could control them then, or at least predict their movements. At the moment they'll run across the whole map to get away from a plant.

B...B...But... If we fix escorts to be smarter, no-one will have anything to complain about anymore!!!! Forums would be EMPTY!!!!

.....And, it's always hysterically to hear about them splashing around in a puddle till they drowned, just so they could stay away from poison ivy 28 tiles away. Hysterical. And yes, even when it happens to me.

supermini wrote:You need to follow them when they run. It's stupid and it sucks for melee, but it's the only way.

Yeah, I know. The problem is that if you're only even a few tiles away from them when they start to bail, it's so easy for them to break LoS with you. After that, it's often a guessing game as to where they went. I've actually spent more than a couple of minutes trying to find an escortee who ran away. Sometimes, I get to the guy before he face-flings himself into a death squad. More often, I get that "QUEST FAILED" message because he couldn't act like he's been somewhere before.

How about at the very least make them not run from stationary enemies

Doesn't work. There are stationary enemies with ranged attacks that could hit them if they didn't run. Heart of the gloom plants, if nothing else.

I think I'd be happy if the silly escortees could simply retarget their fears. It seems like they pick the first threat they see, and blindly run away from that threat, no matter what threats they're running directly into.

Possibly due to repurposing offensive-based targeting AI for running away?

If an escortee could occasionally notice that there's a closer threat, and start running from that instead, it would reduce my frustration considerably...even if it doesn't save any more escortees.

In other words, "No! No! Look right in front of you! That's a crimson crystal! The mouse you're running from is miles away! Start running from the crystal!"

Indeed they're amusing at times. Very.
Some situations or layouts are just desperate anyway. Like meeting that Lost Sun Paladin down a Dreadfell staircase in the middle of a hall, surrounded by skeleton master archers, ghasts and forest whights.

What it kind of annoys me is that they first pledge for support and then run away from the same one they asked support to. If they at least tried to get closer to their supposed savior instead of running flank speed away from a warg just to fall in range of a Snow Giant Thunderer...

How about some 'Stay close' or 'Keep some distance' order to be given to them?
Or just let them be a little less brittle and a little more offensive.