Is there a fix coming for thralls?

Is there a fix coming for non-responsive thralls? Last night I saw a very large number of thralls and pets stationed in our base killed without them doing much. They were close together on a flat surface. They were about as useful as rocks.

With the changes to gates and doors, and thralls being useless, the only effective ways to defend are now pvping with lots of mates (which is currently a lag fest and in the end is just a matter of numbers) and hiding out in some miserable hut in the middle of nowhere hoping not to be discovered.

I’m encouraged by the real performance improvements for buildings. Anything coming that will make pets and thralls worthwhile?

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AI improvements, possibly. No idea when they’ll be rolled out, but it’s one of their main concerns.

Note these are prioritized.

Is this problem specifically against other players? Do your defender thralls/pets behave as intended against other NPCs? You can test this by aggroing a nearby NPC or animal towards your base and seeing if your thralls react to it.

I know my defender thralls pile up on any hapless NPC who even thinks of hurting my base, but, playing single player, I can’t tell if they’d do the same against another player.

It depends. Usually thralls stationed around a base will aggro given time, depending on the thrall. Panthers seem more reactive than rhinos, which sometimes stay put. The delay is the issue.

It is more noticable when fighting with a pet. The time for a pet to engage can vary a lot. Using the same pet (a greater panther) I have sometimes waited till the mob is dead before the pet springs into action (often continuing to strike for 5-10 seconds after the mob is dead). Occasionally, the pet is proactive and finds and attacks targets before I do but this is rare.

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As a PvE player, I just want thralls to stop reacting to other players. Thralls going bonkers every time a friend drops by to use a well or maproom really plays havok with the thralls’ positioning and with a players’ ability to even walk thru a base. >.>

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At least rocks give you stone after a few wacks…

This, only a passive setting would solve that. Or you have to look them in.

I used cages to put over some a time. :laughing:

Passive/active settings would be great, if you play pve or pvp, still fine to be able to say “stay put”.

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Well I don’t want them to be passive though. If a Purge attacks and I’m afk, I still need them to be able to defend against it. But there is literally nothing useful or desirable about PvE thralls reacting to other players. At best it’s comical, at worst it can cause them to glitch into spikes and die, block players in hallways, fall into foundations…

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Not passive all the time, imagine !

No, but when a friend will come in your base, you can set them passive, or such stuff. Or simply while taking them with you.

On my part, i don’t play pve, so people come not drink from my well i mean. But still, there are situations where i wished i could swap to a non agressive state.

Edit: Imagine also, you could set some to passive, exemple in a taverne, others to agressive as defence around your home.

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OK, if you don’t play PvE then it might not make sense why I don’t want to have to select an option for them to be passive toward other players. Basically, in PvE they can’t DO anything to other players other than get in their way, which is undesirable.

A PvE player shouldn’t have to tell a thrall not run around like a child that’s eaten too much sugar anymore than you or I should have to tell other people to keep their hands to themselves while walking down the street. It should be the default expectation given the context of the setting. i.e. It’s stupid to make PvE thralls’ default behavior mirror that of PvP thralls, then force the onus on correcting bad AI on the players. I want to play the game, not micro-manage AI idiosyncrasies! :stuck_out_tongue:

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I have a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup suggestion. Player State is natively Adversarial. Since we now have a land-claim notifier built into the game, there is the capacity for “foot trespass.” Also, since thralls appear to be reactive – requiring an offensive action like a punch to the adversary for them to initiate combat, or damage to their owner or themselves – they have the capacity to react to a change of player Stance.

Let’s say there’s a new setting in which a player could allow Trespass. An adversary/enemy could set his stance to Neutral when he sees the pop-up “You are now entering Barnes’ Acres.” If he draws a weapon, or if the owner toggles this facility off, the invader’s stance will immediately turn to Adversarial, and the defenses will attack. The owner will need to deliberately turn this feature on after every server restart.

My perspective is it’d be easier to change one setting (player stance) to neutral rather than having to set all thralls and pets individually to neutral.

You say that there’s a land claim notifier, but since the mind-numbing decision was made to leave it disabled on Official PvE servers I wouldn’t know. Not that I’m bitter or anything (I am sooo bitter).

Anyway, while that suggestion sounds great for public works on a Conflict or PvP server, it still doesn’t make sense for PvE unless you either want to open yourself up to getting annoyed, or specifically want to build a maze to entrap other players in a crush of unkillable busy-bodies.

It really is there, honest! :white_check_mark: In the UI Server Settings and everything! :smiley:

I do understand your frustration, I really do. Recently I did reshoots for my Building Contest entry and had to have the assistance of another player. I felt like pulling my hair out because my dadgum Greater Wolf would not stop aggroing. Feel ya.

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In PVE there is zero reason for thralls/pets to attack players since they can’t be harmed. If its PVE then setting should just be passive. Is enemy a player, if yes do nothing.

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I know, that’s a problem for many options we get.
I play still with pvp settings for the convenience they give me. I play mostly, or test on my own server, or in singleplayer. But i can also kill my thralls, if i need do so, i don’t have to drag them to the volcano, or to a boss-fight. That’s really a mess, and time-consuming as hell.

It’s the case with most sandbox games, you’re in a way better with pvp settings.

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Hey there,

Our team is taking a look now at thralls being a bit unresponsive when attacking enemies.
We also have this issue up in our Trello Board:

:slight_smile:

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One thing I have noticed is that thralls react quickly to enemy thralls when a player “wakes them up” by entering the area they are all located in. This is true for npcs and also captured thralls placed around a base. However, they react to each other, not to the player or other new thralls entering the area with the player.

For example, when I arrive at my base, most times my placed thralls will start attacking any npc thrall that has spawned nearby. In this case, my thralls have already aggroed and act on it when I turn up.

Conversely, if I leave my base, aggro an npc, and bring it back to my base, I can walk it past my placed thralls without them aggroing. The delay can be maybe 10-20 seconds before they react.

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