Leashing Abuse Solutions

[Nefnate]

Hello all!

Something I have noticed, and am partially guilty of using, are the leashes on NPC like bandits. If you bite off more than you can chew, you can kite away and eventually they just run back to their primary location. While this is happening, they ignore any attacks you use (while still taking damage) and they don't heal at all.

I understand that if they became immune or healed up their HP, it wouldn't make a ton of sense in this game. So I purpose there is some priority put on healing options that make sense for NPC's. Wildlife also doesn't heal very fast, which makes some sense, however it makes it easy to cheese certain creatures.

EDIT: I am all for reevaluating Bandit Camps and AI in general, as I think there is a boatload of room for improvement. However this thread is more directly aimed at addressing the direct abuse of the leash as is.

Brainstorm on Leashing:

• For Bandit/Humanoid Camps
  • If a bandit camp is supposed to be a troupe of established bandits, they should have some form of magical or medicinal healer on site.
    • Whether it's an
      • Alchemist
      • Medic with Bandages
      • A Mage
      • Etc.
    • The healer would not leave the Bandit Base, preferring to stay safe and not do direct combat.
    • When a bandit begins leashing, or gets too low, they will begin running back to their camp and yelling for help.
      • If there is a healer alive and in range, they will begin healing the Bandit as soon as it is in range.
        • This makes clearing camps more important, and also makes more logical sense.
        • It makes it a lot harder to abuse the leashing mechanic if you can't kill them fast enough.
    • If the healer is attacked within the camp, it will scream for help and all other nearby bandits will converge on the attacker.
      • Unless already engaged in combat within the camp.
  • It could also be much simpler
    • The bandit itself could simply begin using a bandage or drink a potion (with the corresponding animations).
      • This would work similarly to how it does for players.
      • This could also happen in conjunction with the healer suggestion.
• For Wildlife
  • It makes sense that if a wounded animal gets away, it will stay wounded.
    • However, for the sake of balance, I think this should be dealt with in some way.
  • After exiting combat and flee mode, a creature is able to active their version of the Rest Skill.
    • They would either lay down, or perhaps lick themselves to clean, or another idle activity.
    • This would begin regenerating their health like the Player Rest skill.
    • It would be interrupted by damage or by a player getting too near.

Please, feel free to ask question, or otherwise offer any feedback.

What do you think?

 

[Tzone]

Bandits should prob have a bandage to use when they leash back or after they finish fighting you.

The leash range should also be based on health of the target and the bandit. A lower health bandit leashes less far but a lower health player will cause a bandit to leash farther.

Go off the premise of they are defending the camp first, protecting them selves second, and trying to score loot off you third. Why would they try to chase down a person if they the bandit is low health. Why would they chase for a long way a full health player leaving most of the camp unguarded. Why would one bandit chase you but not bring a buddy.

I would have it where you aggro one bandit at least another from the group is aggro'd as well. The rest of the camp may aggro but stand back unless their buddies are getting low. Since you are getting 2v1 more I would just have all the lower class bandits have long times in between swings and worse blocking skill. So that way you might be able to 1v2 bandits.

If a bandit gets low health it might try to run back to camp and bandage, if it gets close to the camp another bandit might go out and try to replace it in the 2v1. The wounded bandit will rest some where in camp instead of running away for ever.

Bandits are not hard to kill, just tedious. Similar to Risars you have to wait a long time for openings to attack with out the risk of trading. Unlike players you cant make openings. So having bandits 2v1 but have far more openings and mistakes would make the game both slightly more challenging but more fun instead of either waiting for openings or trading blows.

You can have a mage or two in the bigger camps and have them not leave but it should not be a normal thing. The vets might have a potion with the bandages.

Also bandits should walk backwards if they are deaggro'd and not fleeing. Just walk backwards defending them selves until they get with in a certain range that they would be able to call for help if attacked. Unless they have too damage from a arrow recently then they run straight back with some zig zags maybe. The aggro range on these bandits are a bit too far, I would say lower it to 80% of what we have now unless the player is of somewhat lower health. 80% leash range would make it harder to kill bandits walking back to camp.



For animals it should depend of if it is a back animal or a loner like a bear. A bear when it gets low but the player is still high health should try to flee away and rest up. For wolves they should be allowed to back off and maybe rest a little bit but should come back if the rest of the pack is getting low. If they are the only wolf they should flee. Also animals in mercy mode should try to run away instead of stand there and stare at you. As long as its not fast to the point they can get away from a tamer it should be fine.

 

[Nefnate]

Bandits should prob have a bandage to use when they leash back or after they finish fighting you.

The leash range should also be based on health of the target and the bandit. A lower health bandit leashes less far but a lower health player will cause a bandit to leash farther.

Go off the premise of they are defending the camp first, protecting them selves second, and trying to score loot off you third. Why would they try to chase down a person if they the bandit is low health. Why would they chase for a long way a full health player leaving most of the camp unguarded. Why would one bandit chase you but not bring a buddy.

I would have it where you aggro one bandit at least another from the group is aggro'd as well. The rest of the camp may aggro but stand back unless their buddies are getting low. Since you are getting 2v1 more I would just have all the lower class bandits have long times in between swings and worse blocking skill. So that way you might be able to 1v2 bandits.

If a bandit gets low health it might try to run back to camp and bandage, if it gets close to the camp another bandit might go out and try to replace it in the 2v1. The wounded bandit will rest some where in camp instead of running away for ever.

Bandits are not hard to kill, just tedious. Similar to Risars you have to wait a long time for openings to attack with out the risk of trading. Unlike players you cant make openings. So having bandits 2v1 but have far more openings and mistakes would make the game both slightly more challenging but more fun instead of either waiting for openings or trading blows.

You can have a mage or two in the bigger camps and have them not leave but it should not be a normal thing. The vets might have a potion with the bandages.

Also bandits should walk backwards if they are deaggro'd and not fleeing. Just walk backwards defending them selves until they get with in a certain range that they would be able to call for help if attacked. Unless they have too damage from a arrow recently then they run straight back with some zig zags maybe. The aggro range on these bandits are a bit too far, I would say lower it to 80% of what we have now unless the player is of somewhat lower health. 80% leash range would make it harder to kill bandits walking back to camp.



For animals it should depend of if it is a back animal or a loner like a bear. A bear when it gets low but the player is still high health should try to flee away and rest up. For wolves they should be allowed to back off and maybe rest a little bit but should come back if the rest of the pack is getting low. If they are the only wolf they should flee. Also animals in mercy mode should try to run away instead of stand there and stare at you. As long as its not fast to the point they can get away from a tamer it should be fine.

Lots of info to unpack here. I think I am having trouble totally connecting, because I was more directly referring to dealing with the abuse of their leashing. You're talking about much more in-depth analysis of the bandits behaviour in general, which is totally worth the effort and adding to/changing, but not quite what this thread is about.