Follower AI and frustration

Conan Exiles General Discussion
1

is it just me or is follower AI extra handicapped today?

I don’t know about you guys, but for me the most frustrating part about playing this game is dealing with the poor follower AI. How many times have you been yellin’ at the screen for your follow to MOVE or ATTACK and all they do is stand there like morons?

Genius move assigning the command follower wheel (on ps4 ‘square’) the same button as ‘pick-up’ though… so when you want to make your follower return or attack with the command wheel you’ll instead be picking up stones and branches until you’ve picked up everything in the area (encumbering yourself) only then will you be allowed to communicate with your follower… I’ve died messing around with this many times and no you can’t assign buttons on the ps4 version… Not like it matters if you get the command wheel “up” it’s not like your follower is going to do what you command anyways.

At first I figured I was being a “new player” (can’t say noob nowadays…) and I was doing something wrong- maybe if I mess around with the behaviours they work better… yeah well the only setting that works is “attack everything” ‘50 yd attack range’ ‘50 yard chase’ and just let your follower run around and kill things by itself. Really easy to find those bodies for looting by the way.

don’t even bother with setting up archers on a platform - any foe that is attracted to these guys will just stare at them then walk back to the spawn point and recover any health lost. so cheap… as if the game is like ‘NOPE’ - well what’s the point then - just block the spawn point with a building?

And door blocking… seriously guys door blocking… you know you have to build a larger house just so that your followers don’t block the doorways? if you make a 4x4 foundation room with a doorway, you’re going to be ‘return to inventorying’ your door if you want to get out…because your follower will be standing on the other side of it stopping you from using the door normally…

To me it feels like you’ve got little to no control over your follower- you gear them up and that’s it. the only reason I use them is to carry extra inventory items - basically all you can rely on. You could just raise encumbrance and suddenly there’s no need for them.

Recommend getting a Serpa/bearer, setting them to ‘ATTACK NOTHING’ and just run around as if you where playing any other game… but you’ll still be waiting for them and getting stuck.

I imagine that the developers don’t really have access to charing the code for these- as if it was programmed in another language and they have to hire a specialist or something… there’s got to be more of a reason then ‘it was done on the unreal engine…’

oh you’re going to be nerfing them now? great… sounds good…

2

I set my follower to attack everything in a 30 radius when I go farming thralls, and defend me when I am just out farming mats. The new AI commands work just fine, even though I have to spam “return” sometimes. I feel like I have a great amount of control over my follower. And door blocking? Why do you need your follower to go inside with you? Just place them and take all of their inventory with you. The mechanics are there, you just need to learn how to use them to your advantage. I give this post a -1 for “cry more noob” and lack of skill.

3

I like how they’ve got options for the behaviour. it’s just a shame that the followers don’t give any feedback that they have received the order and are processing it. A simple audible acknowledgement like “yes master” or “on my way” or even a click sound would be far superior then having to stop what I’m doing and turn around to see if they are moving.

What system do you play on? wonder if it makes a difference?

I’d rather my follower wait outside at the door (without blocking it) or return to it’s guard post when I’ve returned to my domicile…but that would be asking a lot now wouldn’t it?

Two things:
when I need my follower to follow me, it’s because I’ve loaded the inventory with loot that’s heading to the chest for a deposit. I’ll deposit what I have then take loot from my follower and deposit it as well. A good glitch is to open and close the door- this forces the follower to appear inside the house- I guess because followers don’t know how to operate a doorknob - they have to teleport. this doesn’t block the door - you can close the door manually or wait for the auto close thing…

when I need to move around freely inside my house without fear of door blocking - I’ll usually just manually place my follower as a guard. the same goes with building structures- the followers like to stand right where you’re about to place the part, can’t have that…so off to guard duty he goes again - but wait he’s got all my building materials!

or you know… how about the follower just follows me inside without standing in the doorways? How about an option for following distance?

the next time you get blocked by your follower - you can think about how you said it was ok :slight_smile:

4

while they are doing that they could scale back the combat dialogue, like Dalinsia doesn’t need to tell my foe they picked the wrong fight after every swing. or my treasure seekers saying “Like the cobra my bite is death” gets old after a while.

5

my teeth are sharp pup, are yours?

because- wolves are known for having dull teeth.