Bug: Thralls Not Able To Walk When Following

Conan Exiles PC Discussion
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Game mode: Single-player
Type of issue: Bug
Server type: PvE/Local

I already made a bug report about this 2 months ago here, but since it hasn’t appeared on the Trello board and I received no response from anyone official… I have no way of knowing whether Funcom is aware of it/going to fix it.

So please, I would appreciate confirmation of awareness and intent to address.

This is an incredibly irritating bug for me. I have quite a lot of patience and have easily put up with the many bugs to date (while buying all the DLC to support) as they have gradually been squished and the game has become more polished… but for some reason this one annoys me so much that I stopped using thralls as followers altogether, and eventually took a complete break from the game hoping it would be fixed when I came back. Unfortunately, it has not.

Description:

Since the patch of [02.03.2019] thralls are no longer able to walk when set to follow. Instead, they stand still until the player-character is a certain distance away and then will run after you, no matter what speed you are moving at.

This results in some extremely janky stop-start movement when you are only moving slowly (which is something I very often do. Whereas it seems most other players like to run everywhere all the time, I prefer to take in the sights and immerse myself in the moment.)

I verified this isn’t a mod-related issue by starting a new game without any mods - in which the weird movement still occurred.

  1. Command thrall to follow.
  2. Walk away while looking at the thrall.
  3. Observe how unnatural and janky the thrall’s movement is without the ability to walk.
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Well it’s not a bug, it’s an intended workaround.

Before the patch thralls was trying to follow you more closely, but when the program was unable to find a path the visual result was a sort of “flipping”: the thralls teleported themself in 2-3 position around you with an annoying rate for players, an issue in performance for the server and an annoying tendency by thralls to die teleporting themself into lava or down a cliff.

As a workaround of this issue, with the patch you mentioned the program wait a longer time before trying, so when you start to walk or run they do not immediatly follow you, and if the program can’t determine a path they teleport near you. Like they did in the past, but just at slow down rate.

So at least 2 of 3 issues of the previous behaviour was fixed.

Funcom is aware of this problem, I’m sure to remeber in the release notes of that patch they said they was still working on a better way to fix it, but they warned it is not easy to have a fix in short time.

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Thanks. I do recall the teleportation fix and had presumed it likely the ‘bug’ had been introduced because of whatever they did.

However, what I don’t understand is how this would prevent thralls from being able to walk at all?

So you’re saying to your knowledge this new behaviour is universal (not just a few players experiencing it)? Keep in mind I’m NOT talking about teleporting at all, but specifically the complete inability of thralls to do anything other than run when following you.

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If you’re referring to the fact a follower when you walk follow you this way:

wait - little run to be beside you - wait - teleport beside you - wait - little run to be beside you etc. etc.

Yes, it’s universal.

If you want to know why it works this way, being a software developper I can try to imagine how it works, be aware I can’t be sure of what I’m saying from this point :stuck_out_tongue:

To “follow” you the program just do a sampling of your position. Higher is the sampling rate and higher is the “awarness” of your follower to have to change its position to follow you.

But the original program was intended to work with an higher rate than now.

So for example if my sample rate is 1 second I can say if the distance from position A and position B is 5 feets (1,5m) or less, the character is walking, if it’s > 5 feets it’s running.

So something like this:

where A and B are two times and B-A = 1 second.

if( distance( character_position( time(A) ), character_position( time(B) ) ) <= 5
than walk_to( character_position( time(B) );
else run_to( character_position( time(B) );

If you change sample rate to be 2 secs but you don’t adjust other parameters, if you walk at 5 feets (1,5m) per second now you walked 3m (10 feets) instead of 1,5m (5 feets) in one “tick” of the sampler.

But for the algorythm I exposed:

character_position( time(A) ) = X
character_position( time(B) ) = X + 10 feets

so distance(…) = 10

10 > 5 so it always think to have to run.

The “wait” time is a direct consequences of this error (he think it has to run to reach the player, but it reach it before next time sample than wait, because he had to walk, not to run).

If you run all the time you never notice this and it will be less annoying then when you walk :wink:

Do you want to see your follower to walk (and find an evidence the algorythm works this way ? ) try to move your character slowly (walk one step-stop and wait-walk 1 step-stop and wait etc.) If I’m true the follower will start again to walk and not to run to follow you :wink:

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Well that’s bad news for me, though good to be aware so I can try to accept it while hoping for a better fix.

I assume you’ve seen enough of other players to know it’s universal? I wouldn’t know as I’ve just been playing SP and haven’t been watching any streams of late.

Incidentally, my follower isn’t teleporting at all, just doing those little runs.

Your explanation makes sense… though I’m no programmer, I’d imagine something like that must be the case if thralls are universally not walking anymore.

However, no matter how slowly I move, or if I stop & start, no matter what I do… I can’t get my follower to walk. Which suggests the explanation isn’t quite right, but I get the idea. Thank you Born2bAlive.

They can walk fine when returning to position after combat with an intruding mob, they just can’t walk at all anymore when following :disappointed_relieved:

Funcom please.

Perhaps Crom will hear my prayers and subsequently ignore them.

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I found this topic to be fascinating, TY. Personally, it does not bother me since I rarely pay much attention to my thrall or pet unless in combat. Every so often I hit ‘V’ to see if someone is behind me, thrall/pet/badazz, etc.

So, I went to the online private server , told a thrall to follow, and walked backwards. @Robarbarian is right, the thrall waits, then runs, then waits, then runs, ad nauseam. It also fits the programming description @Born2bAlive describes. For general reference, the teleporting thing is usually a vertical offset difference or getting stuck behind something since thralls can’t climb.

Next, I put a pet on follow, got set up and walked backward. The only difference from above was the pet did not ‘appear’ to run, but you know how hyenas are :wink:

I do agree with both of you, breaking immersion and fixing the previous AI follow mechanics.

It appears the devs have come a long way to solve an incredibly difficult problem, and for that, kudos.
(Why does the acronym AI contain “Intelligence”, like Military Intelligence?)

Personally, I prefer the current functionality over the aesthetics, but I have been called a utilitarian many times.

Good discussion guys, and thanks for bringing it up, Robarbarian. I am truly sorry this disturbs you so much.

Regards

jim

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Not to worry, I’ll survive lol.

At least now I know I’ll just have to get used to it.

Maybe one day thralls will walk again… In the meantime, I’ve been enjoying the greatly improved npc combat ai that came with the same patch. It’s a huge improvement.

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