Group targeting

[Horace]

Looks like mobs automatically target the last person who enters a room.

It's not a big deal, and in my opinion if it takes longer than 30 minutes to fix - it's not worth the trouble. But if it can be coded quickly so that the mobs either attack the first in the room, or that the leader is automatically the last to enter a room...I think it'd make the game all that much better.

The way it is now, you'd want your weakest person to lead. Obviously, this is off.

[Selveem]

I posted a 'bug' about when you enter a room, multiple targets are attacked.

Unfortunately, it appears bugs submitted on the bugs forum no longer show up often anymore.

For instance, a group of five enter a square with a bandit.

A bandit attacks person 1.
A bandit attacks person 2.
A bandit attacks person 3.
A bandit attacks person 4.
A bandit attacks person 5.

From there, since the fifth person was attacked last, the combat continues on against the last person hit which would only validate your original post.

[Oghma]

I posted a 'bug' about when you enter a room, multiple targets are attacked.
Unfortunately, it appears bugs submitted on the bugs forum no longer show up often anymore.

Bug reports are only viewable by code council members. Once you post a bug report, only councils set up to repair or test them can see them.

[Selveem]

Sorry to derail, but...

I was party to a small group who was traversing the sewers in Daggerford. The wizard who was in our group and in the back of the formation was repeatedly attacked and many times had limbs hacked off and eventually died.

Having issues like this reported for the general public is useful to use for a work-around and I'm sure would considerably alleviate much of the stress and frustration that the player was feeling at the time.

[Arnof]

I was with the group that Selveem mentioned and don't understand why things went the way they did either. I think our group had four members if not five. Now, logic would say if you are leading a group, you turn a corner and someone around that corner doesn't like you, you're going to get slapped first. You're the closest, you're standing dead in front of whatever baddie you're dealing with that day and in this case, slipping past four people to get to the one smallest in the back simply doesn't make sense. Maybe it would with a ranged weapon, but that's not the case here.

I was also in a duo yesterday night. Myself, a fighter, and a wizard. Same situation. When I was leading and she was in the middle rank, she took the initial hits the first time every time when again, that doesn't logically make sense. If you're a small character (the wizard) and you're standing behind a fighter holding a towershield and a long blade, I don't get why the wizard would get punched first.

Reversing the group, with the wizard as the leader and me following her rectified the situation and I took the bulk of the blows. But, if our group were larger or we were in more dangerous terrain, the wizard would have been mutilated.

Anyway, everyone else can speculate about this all day, but I think what we all want to see is the actual reason this happens. So, if there's an admin or coder who has an explanation, I think that'd be great.

[Tavik]

Hopefully this isn't derailing the thread, but I would suggest revising the formation code. Right now it doesn't seem to do anything. Obviously it would work as people are stating here in that the front rank gets attacked first, then middle, then back. If we wanted to make it a little more interesting, you could start putting limits on what people in different ranks are able to do.

For example:

Front rank: Can melee or range attack anything they are facing and will take the attacks of whatever they are facing. This makes fighters/tanks a LOT more useful.

Middle rank: Are guarded against MOST enemies unless the enemy is a large size or larger OR is wielding a polearm or ranged weapon. Can only melee opponents with a polearm or ranged weapon. Has the ability to rescue a person in the front rank and switch places with that person. This would make good cavalry characters VERY useful, albeit a little more specialized.

Back rank: Are guarded against ALL melee attacks (including those from large creatures), but still suseptible to ranged attacks. Cannot melee at all and are limited strictly to ranged attacks.

Other considerations: Touch spells can only be cast from the front rank, rescuing/aiding/healing in combat can only be done to a person in the same or adjacent rank making middle ideal for healers, AOE spells, breath weapons, and other similar attacks still affect everyone in the room despite location within the formation, rogues in the front rank that aren't being attacked get a chance at flanking and sneak attacking.

All this together is going to create more reason to group because it makes fighting a little more safe for some and a lot more interesting for everyone.

It also makes strategising a lot more viable. For example, you may have a line of wizards in the front row for the first round to deal a volley of touch spells before the fighters behind them step up and take over the fighting, with healers in the back to heal up the wizard's wounds from that round. Or you may have a more traditional formation with fighters in the front, healers and back-up fighters in the middle, and range spell casting wizards in the back.

And finally, it provides a reason for players to create more specialized characters like pikemen, archers, tanks, magic buffers, range casters, healers, etc. rather than generic characters that are decent at everything, but not exceptional in anything (although those have a place in the formation due to their versatility).

I realize this would take quite a bit of coding and may be impractical, but this it would fix the issue brought up here and make things a lot more interesting.

[Alvirin]

In a more simple approach, mobs (unless spellcasters or armed with ranged weapons) should attack first a random member in the front ranks, if they are spellcasters or have ranged weapons they could attack any member of group at random.

I think that the problem is the following; aggresive mobs attack all those who enter the room in which are, and since when grouped all the members of the party enter at the same time at that room, the mob tries to attack all them, but those who enter later (middle/back ranks) are the lastest entering the room, and since the mob tries to attack everyone the attack is fixed on the latest member.

[Selveem]

I said that...

*confused*

That's why spell casters should be first in formation until someone fixes grouping code/auto-attack for mobs.

[Ilphae]

Any news on this being fixed in the future?
As a wizard with limited access to defensive spells, constantly getting targeted by mobs over fighters and priests in front rank is reallllllly painful.

I like the idea Tavik had about formations, btw. I'm a big fan of having specialized character roles for groups like that.

[Sirys]

Personally, whenever *I* go adventuring, if I come across an enemy group and I see someone casting spells or prayers, they're the first ones *I* want to kill.. I don't like fire storms and such!!!!

[Horace]

That's not what is happening though. They aren't always going for the casters - they're always going for the guys in the way back. Which makes no sense.

[Keltorn]

It also results in a lot of dead pets, including pets that it makes no sense for enemies to actually attack.

Is this supposed to be happening?

[Alvirin]

They might not be able to kill you, but they will be able to kill what you hold dear.

I think that a solution would be that agressive mobs stop being aggresive once they are in combat, this way when the group leader enters the room, all the mobs attack him and they don't pick those who enter later (middle/back rank), this way fighters would be more useful in a party, particularly with the revised stat-system since likely only fighters will afford to have a really high constitution score, since spellcasters will have to place their eggs in another basket

[Belose]

Personally, whenever *I* go adventuring, if I come across an enemy group and I see someone casting spells or prayers, they're the first ones *I* want to kill.. I don't like fire storms and such!!!!

Good point, except that most casters don't enter the room and immediately show they are casters by casting before they get hit. Also, if *I* were attacking a group I would target those with no armour first as being the easiest to kill, and if they just happen to be casters, hopefully disrupting any spell they may get off. One reason I like Grenade launchers in..uhhm... was it Traveller? Some post-apocalyptic tabletop RPG I played and liked....If you can't shoot the big, mutated, pallid vampie like guy with a gun and move him.. use a grenade launcher. I love the rocket launcher in Resident Evil, too...hehehe.. sorry....gaming memories.. I know I'm not the only one!!!