Game Mechanics: NPC Fleeing

Lyrik · #1 11-17-2010, 01:42 PM

Not 100% on whether this is working as intended or not, but this seemed the logical place to post.

NPC Fleeing, as I understand it, allows for mobs to not flee when another is also engaged in the same combat. This makes a lot of sense and it works fine in places like Guk (two live frogs, neither flee).

I noticed however while kiting Sand Giants in Oasis, I picked up a Dry Bones Skeleton by accident and its presence and aggro on me caused the SG to never flee and chase me all the way till I killed it instead of fleeing at 8% or so.

Is this working properly?

synchrite · #2 11-18-2010, 01:18 PM

From what I remember the mobs had to be fairly close together for it to happen so it was much more noticeable in indoor zones. I think it also has to do with whether or not those NPC's will socially agro or not. In Greater Faydark, for example, if you agro one giant wasp drone others will join if they come nearby. Neither will run until they are the last one alive (haven't tested that here). If you were fighting a wasp and got jumped by an orc pawn, however, I'm nearly positive they wouldn't impact whether or not the other one began to flee.

My assumption is that it works based on whether or not they will agro together socially. I'm pretty sure a sand giant wouldn't in itself bring a nearby dry bones into the fight unless you were close enough yourself.

Please correct me if I'm wrong...

Dantes · #3 11-18-2010, 02:00 PM

Something funky about how mobs run on these emulated servers. On live they would run at 20% and cause all kinds of trouble. They never do that here.

Lyrik · #4 11-18-2010, 04:33 PM

Depends on the mob/situation. It does seem wrong here, but it varies though I typically don't get a runner till 8-10%HP.

Chanus · #5 11-18-2010, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by synchrite [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

From what I remember the mobs had to be fairly close together for it to happen so it was much more noticeable in indoor zones. I think it also has to do with whether or not those NPC's will socially agro or not. In Greater Faydark, for example, if you agro one giant wasp drone others will join if they come nearby. Neither will run until they are the last one alive (haven't tested that here). If you were fighting a wasp and got jumped by an orc pawn, however, I'm nearly positive they wouldn't impact whether or not the other one began to flee.

My assumption is that it works based on whether or not they will agro together socially. I'm pretty sure a sand giant wouldn't in itself bring a nearby dry bones into the fight unless you were close enough yourself.

Please correct me if I'm wrong...

On Live it was always basically this.

Some mobs will consider other mobs (same kind or in some cases completely different kinds) allies in a fight and will not run until they are the last one standing... but it's not always the case. A general rule of thumb is if you can't pull one without aggroing the other, they will not flee until the last one is at low health (on P1999 low health seems to be 8-10% as others have mentioned, rather than the 20% seen on Live).

Undead, for the most part, will always aggro, regardless of level, and this could cause other mobs to no longer flee.

A fleeing mob will not stop fleeing if you aggro a new mob after it has started running from you.

Extunarian · #6 11-18-2010, 04:48 PM

I wish I could find some way to prove it, but I think runners are a lot easier to handle here. Seems like they wait longer to run, and even then they seem to just sort of pace around a small area waiting to die instead of running straight away.

Chanus · #7 11-18-2010, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Extunarian [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I wish I could find some way to prove it, but I think runners are a lot easier to handle here. Seems like they wait longer to run, and even then they seem to just sort of pace around a small area waiting to die instead of running straight away.

That's mostly because at 8-10% health, their run speed is dramatically reduced... On Live, when they ran at 20%, they still had mostly full (though still somewhat reduced) run speed.

...and then EQ pathing being what it is...

Lyrik · #8 11-18-2010, 06:35 PM

So would we assume that the Sand Giant / Dry Bones situation I posted about should not have happened? The skeleton only aggroed because I ran over it and that's what Dry Bones Skeletons do. I could have pulled a SG near it and it would (should) not have assisted.

Dantes · #9 11-18-2010, 07:19 PM

I'd say it's wrong, because a skeleton should not be considered an "ally" of a Sand Giant.

Chanus · #10 11-18-2010, 07:34 PM

I don't recall on live if a sand giant and a dry bones skeleton would social aggro, but I would assume not. Usually the mobs would have to be on the same faction, or at least have one of their multiple factions be the same... so it seems like the sand giant should still run, but I'm not able to say so for sure, myself.