Changing Thrall Weapons can cause them to stop fighting

Game mode: [Enter game mode here: (Online official | Online private | Single-player)]
Type of issue: [Enter one of the following: Bug
Server type: [Enter one of the following: PvP | PvE-Conflict | PvE]
Region: North America


This has happened on countless servers & configurations: solo, official, private, mod and no mods.If you change the weapon a thrall has in his inventory, eventually he will try to attack but just stand there with the weapon doing nothing.


Please provide a step-by-step process of how the bug can be reproduced. The more details you provide us with the easier it will be for us to find and fix the bug:
1.Deploy thrall
2.Take him to fight.
3.Change his weapon, if he continues to attack change it to another.
4.After a seemingly random amount of changes (sometimes first change, sometimes several) he will stop attacking. he will then not attack at all until server reboot. (Note that with the mod Pickup +, re-deploying the thrall will get him attacking again)

There are a lot of complaints about buggy thrall behavior, but Iā€™m very disturbed to see what has because a core part of the game to have very little mention of this issue on the Trello board, and what is there simply says that the problems can not be duplicated in testing.

I nailed down this happening somewhat consistently (I say somewhat because the number of weapon switches it takes seems to be non-deterministic) when trying to test other buggy and flawed Thrall behavior, specifically the rumors that thralls ā€œpreferā€ a certain weapon type. My testing was inconclusive, but anecdotally there are no ā€œpreferencesā€, just buggy behavior that is easily misconstrued. However, if there were a weapon preference, this is something that should be clearly denoted on the thrall interface. Moreover, thrall information before theyā€™re deployed is very sketchy. We know if itā€™s a fighter or archer, and itā€™s racial appearance. Racial appearance means nothing. A Stygian could be from the relatively weak Black Hand or from the much stronger Sepermaru. Noting the faction the thrall is from is far more functionally important than itā€™s appearance. But since Iā€™m ranting about it, if weā€™re going to have this appearance information, gender would be nice to know too! Maybe a mouse-over that says ā€œFemale; Relic Huntersā€, or something to that effect.

Sorry to ramble and rant. :slight_smile:

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Youā€™re not ranting, youā€™re not rambling, itā€™s a known bug that has been discussed in detail. There are others, but see Thrall not attacking issue for the latest rather long discussion. Within, @Ignasi says the devs have acknowledged the problem, but someone decided a few tests warranted putting ā€˜cannot replicateā€™ on the Trello card. I canā€™t even find the card anymore (have a link?), but it was labelled ā€˜Prioritizationā€™ last November or December, which was completely ignored.

I had posted explicit instructions on how to duplicate it including place, procedure and implored them to retest until it happened. Apparently, it was also ignored.

It is a bug.

This is what I use to bypass it.

I have two main followers, Seeker Iris, one in black, the other in white. I only arm them at my main base in guard mode with both a sword (Blade of the Adventurer?) and a truncheon. In semi-regular runs, I go through a level on the east end of Sep. If there are T4s I want, I remove the sword from her inventory. If not, I remove her truncheon. She will assume one of three AI responses.

    • When I attack, she will go berserk, attacking anything in her line of sight. This is what tells me she is on the right AI track for the Unnamed City
    • When I attack, she remains passive and will be ineffective until server reset, perhaps longer.
    • When I attack, she will menace, but not attack, the NPC closest to her current position.

In case 1, she is ready to go.
For case 2, I return her to base and pull out the other one. Same gear, the only difference is the color of her heavy armor. Then I repeat the Sep process. Usually, this one enters case 1 and I am ready to go. If not, I am done for the day because two is all I got :sob:
In case 3, she could revert to case 1 and I continue to slaughter innocent civilians. Sometime getting hit causes the change. There is no clear cue as to cause.

Again, identical thralls geared the same. Random bugs are hard to track down and I understand the problems Funcom faces now with exploits and things that prevent players from even playing. Priorities.

Thralls are a big part of my game, and I can safely assume most who solo (even online, like I do) feel the same. Unfortunately, since there has been no action on the part of the developers, most have given up imploring.

I submit that longevity of a bug that affects a significant portion of the playerbase be included during prioritization.

I hope this helps in two ways, reiteration of the bug, and potential workarounds.

Now, how is that for a rant?

Regards, and thanks for most of the game.

jim

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I play on ps4 and also experience this with my thralls on the regular bases.

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Good rant, @Jim1 ! I agree with all your observations.

For your case 3, I have a sorta-semi-maybe-kinda workaround that sometimes works but is not always practical:

Run far away from what you want her to knock out;
Put both the weapon and the truncheon in her inventory, and get her to ā€˜agroā€™ on something, preferably big (i tend to go to the legendary scorpion east of Sep);
She will randomly switch back and forth between the weapons, eventually she will start attacking with weapon, but continue to switch to trunch and not attackā€¦if she lives long enough (healing arrows!) sheā€™ll eventually (usually) begin attacking with the trunch. Immediately remove the weapon from her inventory and run away to break agro.

Hope that helps as a workaround for a very frustrating and long-standing bug.

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Can you find the specific card?

And yes, the workaround is a PIA. Iā€™ve done that before with the black rhino and it worked.

Regards

jim

Hey @Malagant

Thanks for the detailed report. As @Jim1 pointed out weā€™re aware of some problems with AI behavior and our team is looking into it.
Apologies for the frustration.

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