Your post is entertaining and informative. You are totalyl right in that everything in Conan Exiles is implemented in the most straighforward fashion.
You answer wholly begs the question, though. The question is, why is it different now than before?
Prior to AoW Chapter 3, it never worked quite well. However, one could reliably count on thralls AI to engage and re-engage any hostile within attack range if not set to ‘attack nothing’. Even if set to attack nothing, they would consistently attack on command.
Starting with AoW Chapter 3, the AI started not working at all. Thralls started getting stuck in permanent indecision loops that can be broken only by making them re-quip thier weapon or by a hostile NPC doing damage on them. I mean specifically they can be chasing one NPC around on a open flat plain, and spontaneously go into ‘stand there and do nothing’ mode. They stay stuck until something outside pops them out of it. Telling them to attack does nothing while stuck. When they aren’t stuck, they respond to commands. This bug persists into Chapter 4.
Starting with Chapter 4, Funcom added a new thing where thralls will never attack on thier own, and not attack on command until you are engaged. This is coupled with a new ‘Following → Aggressive’ setting. One expects that aggressive + following means that thrall will attack things that come into range, while ‘Following → Defensive’ would produce the behavior of doing nothing until you engage or tell them to attack. Yet Agressive and Defensive seem to do the same, and telling thralls to attack does nothing until you are engaged.
There’s also a rather dumb Ch4 slider behavior where you cannot reduce chase range below attack range, except by tricking the UX. Like the OP, I want attack range to be reasonable, and chase range to be short so thralls don’t go running off when enemies flee. If chase range is just attack range, why is it even there?
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