Fleeing Mobs Forget About You (in Lake Rathe at Least)

[loramin]

While doing the Tainted Aqua Goblin camp for my Druid's epic I dragged a couple of PHs to the island above the underwater tower. I DoTed them both below 20%, but then I had to deal with something IRL, and when I came back both their roots had broke and they'd ran off into the lake.

It's virtually impossible to cast or hit them in the water (which seems like a bug), so I just sat and waited for them to heal up enough to come back ... but they didn't.

Instead one completely unleashed himself from me, and went back to his spawn point (and full health). The other tried to do the same thing, but I was able to catch him just before he got back to the spawn point, so he still had low health.

On live I don't remember a fleeing mob ever just forgetting you and going back to its spawn point, so this seems like a bug. But, my memory of classic isn't perfect, and I have no evidence to file with the bug, so I thought I'd ask for some wisdom from the crowd on the topic.

The hive mind responded here: https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=310728 and the conclusion was that it shouldn't be possible for a mob to flee so far away that they forget about you, so I figured I should file this as a bug (with that thread as evidence, since I'm not awesome like Rygor and can't find any proper evidence).

[Oleris]

https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=265599

Haynar: Added "lazy aggro" behavior for NPCs. If they get too far from their target, they will no longer chase.

Looks like it has to do with this patch. I know some dragons will leash in TOV, not sure if it was meant for all mobs though.

[Rygar]

Some evidence already reported here on flee distance from you.
https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=304581

Also, leash is Classic in all zones. Torven did some current live testing of distances and they vary by zone, and sometimes within zones. Who knows if tweaked over the ages.

Here is a dated dev response on leashing:

https://web.archive.org/web/20010822114637/http://eqvault.ign.com:80/archive/arc77.shtml


Gordon on Kunark
[Quote from original post: 2) In Norrath proper these mobs will chase you all the way to zone to kill you because they are mad at you.]

No, they don't. All over, NPCs will not pursue you if you are out of a certain range. Try rooting a fire beetle on the Northeast side of east commons, then run with SoW to the Nro Tunnel. If you get far enough away before the root breaks, it won't pursue.

The zones being bigger in Kunark do probably exacerbate the problem, since the zones are bigger, and someone is more likely to be able to run a good distance without hitting a zone border.