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Ranged companions fixed!!!


Mulzz

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How is what you describe less management than swapping between passive and attack? Quite the opposite.

"More intuitive and less management in mid-combat."

 

With passive/attack as part of an LOS pull, you need to put them back on attack in mid-combat while watching everything else. With commands actually built for scenarios like that, you can do it all outside of combat, so no pressure, and more intuitive. For example, putting a companion on passive means they won't run off to attack, but you have to make sure to do it before combat starts. If they've already aggroed and then you LOS, even if you put them on passive, they'll come to you, but not necessarily behind the wall. So now you've got a companion getting pelted and they're doing nothing.

 

Being able to use passive for something like that is tolerable, but it's messy.

 

Also worth noting, a "Go Here" would make most sense being designed so that it automatically switches them to Stay rather than Follow (cause otherwise they'd just run back to you as soon as they reach their destination). Which would simplify it to one command rather than two as I initially described it. Go Here behind wall, then pull.

 

For further intuitiveness...ness. They could have companion switch back to Follow upon exiting combat (perhaps as a toggle in game options).

 

I mean, I'm just scratching the surface here and throwing out off the top of my head. There are all sorts of ways to make it more intuitive to manage them and expand on how they can be managed. It would just require some fiddling with options to give people more room to fit how they play (and of course, the coding for it, which may be "the rest of the _______ owl").

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I do not want my ranged/healer companion to run to the enemy. I want them to stand at range and heal. :mad::mad::mad::mad:

 

"That's it man, game over man, game over"

 

Unless you've encountered a new bug, the companions are running within distance of attacking. If your ranged comp is running right into the fray versus staying back to some degree, then you're probably bugged or their weapon has almost no range to it. But the companions are performing as they always have in the past, move into position, or range in this case, and attack. As mentioned by others, it appears what you want is a 'stay' command, or something to that affect, which is a whole different issue and has the potential to have even more micromanaging involved due to issues that have already been mentioned in one of the more recent posts. I don't see the devs investing the time to make the companions savvy enough to manage themselves without our input.

 

If the devs want to implement a 'stay' command, then I'm all in, give it a shot.

 

Edited by Pirana
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"More intuitive and less management in mid-combat."

 

With passive/attack as part of an LOS pull, you need to put them back on attack in mid-combat while watching everything else. With commands actually built for scenarios like that, you can do it all outside of combat, so no pressure, and more intuitive. For example, putting a companion on passive means they won't run off to attack, but you have to make sure to do it before combat starts. If they've already aggroed and then you LOS, even if you put them on passive, they'll come to you, but not necessarily behind the wall. So now you've got a companion getting pelted and they're doing nothing.

 

Being able to use passive for something like that is tolerable, but it's messy.

 

Also worth noting, a "Go Here" would make most sense being designed so that it automatically switches them to Stay rather than Follow (cause otherwise they'd just run back to you as soon as they reach their destination). Which would simplify it to one command rather than two as I initially described it. Go Here behind wall, then pull.

 

For further intuitiveness...ness. They could have companion switch back to Follow upon exiting combat (perhaps as a toggle in game options).

 

I mean, I'm just scratching the surface here and throwing out off the top of my head. There are all sorts of ways to make it more intuitive to manage them and expand on how they can be managed. It would just require some fiddling with options to give people more room to fit how they play (and of course, the coding for it, which may be "the rest of the _______ owl").

 

Sure, there are a lot of ways in which the AI could be improved upon and we could get far more options to micromanage them, but I think it is not worth it really. With the latest fix they are back to being a useful extension of the player character's abilities in casual PvE combat and that is all they need to be. They are not supposed to be a substitute for a real player.

 

Coding AI is one of the most frustrating, error-prone and time-consuming things ever and we all know that BioWare does not have the manpower to pull off an AI upgrade whether it is inherent behaviour or player interaction (which is most certainly the reason why the fix took so long).

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Unless you've encountered a new bug, the companions are running within distance of attacking. If your ranged comp is running right into the fray versus staying back to some degree, then you're probably bugged or their weapon has almost no range to it. But the companions are performing as they always have in the past, move into position, or range in this case, and attack. As mentioned by others, it appears what you want is a 'stay' command, or something to that affect, which is a whole different issue and has the potential to have even more micromanaging involved due to issues that have already been mentioned in one of the more recent posts. I don't see the devs investing the time to make the companions savvy enough to manage themselves without our input.

 

If the devs want to implement a 'stay' command, then I'm all in, give it a shot.

 

 

You are incorrect. A companion range is what....30 meters/feet. I understand that if I attack at 35 meters/feet the companion would move to within range of the enemy, so he/she would move 5 feet/meters ahead of the player. As it stands now if I am a ranged DPS and I stand at 30 meters/feet from the enemy the range healer companion will run ahead to 15 meters/feet from the enemy, that does not make sense. I have been playing since beta nonstop to present and this is not how companions have always functioned. Companions were broken when the devs decided that companions can serve all roles healer/dps/tank, I am not looking for a stay command. When this game launched companions did not rush ahead as they do now. I am not requesting anything new.

Edited by ufarax
need to add something
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You are incorrect. A companion range is what....30 meters/feet. I understand that if I attack at 35 meters/feet the companion would move to within range of the enemy, so he/she would move 5 feet/meters ahead of the player. As it stands now if I am a ranged DPS and I stand at 30 meters/feet from the enemy the range healer companion will run ahead to 15 meters/feet from the enemy, that does not make sense. I have been playing since beta nonstop to present and this is not how companions have always functioned. Companions were broken when the devs decided that companions can serve all roles healer/dps/tank, I am not looking for a stay command. When this game launched companions did not rush ahead as they do now. I am not requesting anything new.

 

Again, that depends on the companion you're using and their weapon. Some of the ranged comps are of the Scoundrel/Operative type and their weapon range is well under thirty meters. I'm not having any issues with the ranged companions running anywhere near the npc's, they stay at a distance and fire. Hypothetically, lets say you're right, which I have yet to experience, and they do indeed move to what you're saying, then that's still plenty of distance to not get destroyed by said npc's. Unless your companion is of the tank type, and you're not pulling everything around you, you shouldn't be having any issues with your companion getting destroyed at range. So far you're the only one I've heard of having this issue. That's not to say it isn't happening, but I know first hand, from my point of view, this is simply not the case.

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Sure, there are a lot of ways in which the AI could be improved upon and we could get far more options to micromanage them, but I think it is not worth it really. With the latest fix they are back to being a useful extension of the player character's abilities in casual PvE combat and that is all they need to be. They are not supposed to be a substitute for a real player.

 

Coding AI is one of the most frustrating, error-prone and time-consuming things ever and we all know that BioWare does not have the manpower to pull off an AI upgrade whether it is inherent behaviour or player interaction (which is most certainly the reason why the fix took so long).

Nothing in what I proposed suggests they need to be a substitute for a real player.

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You are incorrect. A companion range is what....30 meters/feet. I understand that if I attack at 35 meters/feet the companion would move to within range of the enemy, so he/she would move 5 feet/meters ahead of the player. As it stands now if I am a ranged DPS and I stand at 30 meters/feet from the enemy the range healer companion will run ahead to 15 meters/feet from the enemy, that does not make sense. I have been playing since beta nonstop to present and this is not how companions have always functioned. Companions were broken when the devs decided that companions can serve all roles healer/dps/tank, I am not looking for a stay command. When this game launched companions did not rush ahead as they do now. I am not requesting anything new.

 

Talking from experience last night, it depends on your companion. I know that Shae, Vette and Z00M all stay at the right distance when I’m on my ranged Alts. Theron is a little dumb and runs too close, but he always was a crap healer,

My other comps like Lana, Khem, etc are melee, so I don’t ever put them on healing because they will jump in.

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The distance to the boss where companions dps when there is nothing to heal may be a remainder of their original role. Testing it with jugger, scoundrel and merc, it seems like most new ranged companions, the original healers and the original ranged dps keep a 30m distance, while the original ranged tanks (Pierce, Corso, Blizz) prefer the 10m range. Edited by Mubrak
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Nothing in what I proposed suggests they need to be a substitute for a real player.

 

That's fine, I did not mean you specifically, it was meant as a general observation.

 

In any case, I was just trying to say that the companion AI is fine as it is now and there is no pressing issue that has to be tackled in order for it to function within the boundaries of this game. AI behaviour and control QOL upgrades are a nice to have if more money, effort and manpower would ever be redistributed to SWTOR, but they are not really necessary.

Edited by Phazonfreak
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