I gladly welcome other people’s thoughts on this, as it’s a nuisance that’s hard to ignore. I’d very much like to see this one fixed. I’m still trying to analyze the behaviors and what triggers fire, when they fire, etc. But now that I’ve been playing on server for a while, I can see a difference between it and soloplay. I was very glad to hear that the combat music was no longer infinite on server. I was also very disappointed when I tested it in SinglePlayer mode and heard that it still played there. I started trying to find what caused the music to stop and why it doesn’t work across the board for all modes.
What I think I’ve seen is that it’s somehow tied to the new leashing mechanic. I’m still not 100% sure, but I think there are 2 requirements for the combat music to stop. I think the mobs must have reached thier tether distance, and that they have sufficiently retreated back to their spawn location. When playing on server, the server tracks everything. It will keep mobs in memory until they die. This is not necessarily the case in SinglePlayer mode. In soloplay, sometimes you outrun them. Even though the music ought to stop it doesn’t. I suspect this is because in soloplayer, if you have ran too far away it has stopped tracking that original mob and the conditions that allow aggro to stop can never be met. So I think the requirements can never be met unless you return to the original area to clear the music toggle. Before the followers patch, on soloplayer, at a certain distance, I think the enemies would simply despawn.
Anyone who can provide additional info, please do so.
Yeah I have the feeling too that is correlated to the new distance that enemies start to target you and follow you. I noticed that when I ride my horse and run far enough away so that the enemy would “reset” and run back they simply get stuck and stay in place until they disappear from my draw distance.
The music is now stuck and keeps playing.
If I ride back to that same enemy and kill it the music stops. Also sometimes, even after an hour of playing and running away from an enemy I see the exact same enemy run back to its original position if I come close enough again, they seem to freeze there for as long as you don’t return to that area.
I noticed that on the server today. I mean, I guess in hindsight, I’ve seen it before, but I didn’t realize the cause. I assumed when I saw a creature out of place that it occurred recently by some other player running through the area. But today I made several trips across the same path, and saw that it was my interactions that caused them to get stuck there. Like the combat is paused, frozen in time.
And somehow, there is a difference between server and soloplayer that causes the music to continue on soloplay.
Like the combat is paused, frozen in time.
Makes me wonder if the game mechanics use some type of “saved state” when there are no players in that area.
Thanks. I’m trying to nail this down, but I really don’t know what type of differences between solo and server could cause this. I may be in over my head, but I’ll do what I can to help them get it sorted.
I don’t either. But here’s a bit more insight into Solo vs Server.
On Solo, only part of the world is rendered at a time, versus a server renders the entire world. The AI may be static in those areas, but the world itself is rendered. So an unintended consequence of this is if you leave an area in Single player, just far enough out of render range, and come back, spawns and whatever else reset to their default state.
Related to the music thing? You got me, I have no idea. Just thought I would share in the knowledge in your pursuit.
I didn’t know the specifics, but I knew it was something along those lines. A sort of radius effect around the player in solo mode. I have used it to my advantage many, many times in my games. When farming for tradesmen in Set City, I learned to make a wide circle around the outer pathways so that the area surrounding my character didn’t overlap in the middle (hope that made sense). When I did it right, all of the spawn locations I was interested in had reset with new NPC’s with each lap - no combat required until I found the right one. Some call it a bug. I call it a feature. I don’t like the “proper” method of hunting for NPC’s nearly as much as I like my soloplayer method. There’s actually an open thread that runs parallel to this particular bit of knowledge.
When I run around and slash creatures to death, the battle music is constantly on in the Unnamed City.
When I go back home, on the way at the obelisk at the Warmaker dungeon the music switches to the proper background music.
So I think if you attack an enemy, the combat music does not stop until there are enemies rendered in that area.
Render seems to be the recurring pattern here. Aggro will seemingly only drop if it’s rendered. In server where, as @Multigun pointed out, the entire world is rendered. In soloplayer it’s possible that aggro doesn’t drop because the location of the aggro is no longer rendered.
@Ignasi is it a good enough starting point for the devs to troubleshoot?
This screencap is taken from the live version of a singleplayer game - not testlive, but it may be able to provide additional insight. It appears as though the Darfari fighter circled in red is “stuck”. I can’t say whether this is outside the range of the previously mentioned ‘saved state’ or if she is paralyzed there for a different reason. I manuevered around until I was close enough to reactivate her, at which point she lowered her defense posture and walked back to her spawn location. Not long after this, the combat music stopped. This is well within the range of render, so perhaps it is the radius of the saved state causing aggro to always be on. Again, this post, and only this post, are analyzed from the live branch.
In my opinion combat music is an excitement killer. My wish would be to only hear it if my character or my thrall/pet is fighting. I love to be scared.
The way it’s set up now on the server side, is that the mobs will turn to retreat back to their spawn locations, but the music doesn’t switch until they’ve returned (or nearly returned). I think it would make more sense, both logically and in terms of toggling the hostile state, if the moment of retreat is when it changed.
The way the combat music is now it plays so much its just annoying. I went to the under water city, it started for like the 20th time in the last boss room and played the whole time, it still played when I left by the water exit, still played while I got off the island by boat , still played while I ran around the city and killed apes. My little base is over by the pirate ship and was still playing when I got home. It played all that time, never stopped, never changed. I really hope this is a bug and they will fix it as its super annoying this way.
btw this was not on test live as I can not get on test live yet.
I’m no expert in the matter either, but from what i have noticed in Single player in the current state:
When aggro is triggered you have to get rid of " this very specific aggro" before leaving rendering range by either Killing what is aggroed obviously or by leting the ennemy reset his aggro. ennemies will often “deaggro” after a while if their target is off range. But you HAVE TO get rid of it before leaving rendering range.
The thing is, some ennemies are sometimes glitched in the terrain or stuck in the environnement as you all know, meaning that if you’re already trying to get rid of an opponent while a new “hiiden” one adds his own aggro you Don’t even know you are “marked” by a second aggro, so you go away, you think you have cleared everything and that the music will stop very soon, but it just won’t…
One other thing is that the combat music will also play if you come close enough to several creatures engaging each other. If these creatures are still alive when you get out of rendering range the game consider the aggro can never be cleared and in fact it CANNOT as the holder of the aggro will often times have already automatically respawned when you come back to the area.
I also 'd like to admit that the cause of this problem doesn’t seem to be consistent enough to manage a 100% workaround it. So in my SP game the music has been off for a while already, which is a shame as it usually indicates the player when he is being targeted and also add to the immersion.
I don’t like the “proper” method of hunting for NPC’s nearly as much as I like my soloplayer method. There’s actually an open thread that runs parallel to this particular bit of knowledge.