Thrall AI is painfully poor

Conan Exiles General Discussion Feedback
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I checked for “Thrall AI” topics, most date back to 2019, one to July of '23, and the most recent to January '24, prior to the most recent Chapter update.

In addition to standing around “holding their yank”, freezing in some confusion loop… and not attacking NPC mobs the way I would expect if given the order to be AGGRESSIVE…

They also routinely move into a fight directly in front of my character, blocking my attack and limiting DPS to the NPC mobs. There needs to be a mechanism to assign their position in relation to my avatar, how far off they stand (follow… “check”), and from what direction they aggress the target. Presently their AI behavior is interfering with strategy more than it is useful.

Thrall “behavior” settings in their inventory window is insufficient. The biggest problem is that the ATTACK and CHASE settings are locked together, and locked precisely backwards from how they should be. With an archer, I’d like them to shoot and attack at max range, but CHASE NOTHING or chase a much shorter distance than the set attack… to draw enemies into a kill zone with several fighters.

With CHASE always locked to attack distance, it only serves to get thralls killed, wandering off on their own, rather than working in teams. Thanks for wasting my time in hunting down, subjecting them to the wheel, outfitting, training, and placing them strategically only to have them die for lack of programming.

Very poorly conceived… highly disappointing.

And I’ll add… the idea that thralls gain ZERO EXPERIENCE unless their following my avatar assumes I’m quite the impressive example of deadly strategic debauchery… I grant that thralls might earn LESS EXPERIENCE from casual contact, but none; is simply not realistic. I should be able to set up a strategic “kill zone” prepare my thralls with equipment and settings to draw NPC’s in and level over time… If “followers” get a BONUS, or non-follwers get a PENALTY (opposite sides, same coin) doesn’t matter… but the fact that “troops learn nothing from experience” is simply not logical.

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Putting them through the Wheel of Pain is meant to break their will. They lose their capability of acting on their own initiative because we turn them into obedient slaves who unhesitatingly rush into the jaws of death at our command.

So, even though they can fight on their own, according to instructions given by their master, they learn nothing because they’re just repeating their given orders. But when folliwng us, under our direct guidance, we can subject them to positive reinforcement (“Well done, Bruce!”) as well as constructive criticism (“Not like that, Bruce.”), which imprints new behavioral patterns onto the tabula rasa that is their mind.

How this applies to thralls rescued from cages? Well, they’re obviously traumatized. Recruited from the bar? Alcoholics.

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No own will doesnt mean they should act like lobotomized

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No, that’s obviously the result of the brain trauma caused by our recruitment strategy. (I really think the game needs a legendary truncheon called Recruitment Strategy.)

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Interesting way to defend bad coding.

You must be working in marketing/sales.

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It’s got nothing to do with coding, it’s purely a design decision.

And I’m just using a little bit of suspension of disbelief to make some of the weird “game” features make sense from a role-player’s perspective. Need to learn that skill to keep myself sane with just about any cRPG.

Frankly, I’m much too honest to work in a profession that is based on selling people crap they don’t need.

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Well, given how long thralls are like this in the game some might have to consider it’s a design decision xD

Just like dropping loot through walls into other lootbags! :smiley:

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Close ur wallet like I did. only speech they know.

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To the three existing modes of thrall following, I would add a fourth and call it ‘self-defense’. With it, the thralls will not help the character fight his battle and will only defend themselves if they themselves are attacked.
Personally, I really need this mode in my game.

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Besides the fact that these “traumatized” thralls we break are still able to speak and use weapons, nevermind the ability to understand commands, suggests they are just as smart as everyone else.

The AI is simply poor and the AoW made it worse, if their bad AI is a result of us breaking them, how are enemies just as stupid?
And what’s your excuse for the thralls we hire in the tavern or free from cages?

They decided to follow us because we saved them/pay them. :man_shrugging:

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And that’s a great idea btw. Even on some PvP servers I’ve seen people build some sort of community center with supplies, to help people progress quicker.
The tavern could work great for something like that, but unfortunately the barkeeps don’t have any settings besides follow distance.
They will simply attack everything. And of course enemy players will just kill the barkeeps if they’re getting attacked by them.
A self defense command would be really nice! :+1:

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Try Dragon’s Dogma 2 if you want to see a decent AI at work.

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Forget fighting, It would be nice if my thralls didn’t pin me against a wall. Or let me pass by them going up or down stairs.

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Already have it in my wishlist and will buy it soon.
It’s from capcom which also made my beloved monster hunter! :smiley:
Didn’t even know that before, but now that i know that i WILL play it that’s for sure.

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Follower’s AI is working only when they have a mood for it. Basically approx. twice a year and and then maybe during Saturday. It’s no new thing, no matter the new settings, I still see the same issues.

Follower thralls standing and jiggling in the “on guard” position, while Dracosaurus is chasing me and trying to kill me with his OP dmg flame attack. Today through the whole Warmaker’s run they refused to do anything, and if they did, only one of them attacked, while other left the on guard position, stood there and was taking damage without doing anything.

Both of them set to “aggressive” following mode. :')

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Yeah, I have noticed that thralls are not so snappy since the update. I will send them in to attack a group of enemies, and once they have killed one enemy, they will return to my side instead of attacking the other ones. Like you said, that’s not very aggressive at all. They will also seem surprised when the enemies go to where they are an attack, standing motionless for a few moments before drawing their weapons and attacking back. Previously, they would continue to attack a group of enemies and would only return to me when they were dead.

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It’s a cool game if you want to see followers with a very decent behavior. Quite complex too. For a game like this, “not half bad”. You’ll get the joke when you play it. :wink:
If you are on PSN, send me a pvt msg here and I’ll give you my ID. A few of us have played the game and you can hire our pawns for free.
It’s not a challenging game. If you build your character properly, you’ll do just fine. With a team of good pawns, it becomes easy (so you choose how many you decide to take). Less pawns, more XP. With advanced pawns, you become a spectator, basically. But you can start farming drakes as soon as they appear in game. My suggestion is that you take your time and explore, try crazy builds, use funny pawns, etc. Don’t rush it. :blush:

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It’s almost like I thought about this before you even asked:

They repeat the same handful of sentences. You cannot have an actual conversation with them.

They know how to hold a weapon, but their fighting ability is rubbish compared to a player.

They can understand commands like “Stay”, “Follow”, “Come here” and “go there”. An average dog can learn more commands than that, and more complicated ones too. A thrall doesn’t even know how to fetch (although a golem does).

If you think that’s “as smart as everyone else”, you may need to expand your social circles.

This is a fair point. I would expect the Stygian standing army to have some discipline and coordination. But their sentries go chasing random passers-by instead of alerting the camp when intruders approach.

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Definitely needs improvements, absolutely agree with you.

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Love your optimism, i honestly do.
If it works for you to look at it that way, i definitely won’t blame you.

But for me it doesn’t.

That’s not because they couldn’t, it’s simply not implemented to talk to them or have them commenting in an appropriate way.
In Dragon age 3 the characters in your party comment on things and talk to each other.

If a trauma would be an excuse for the poor AI, shouldn’t they sit in the corner crying or lose their minds berzerker style when enemies approach?

Besides their bad AI there is no indication for a trauma.

If they are so traumatized how is the barkeep able to talk?

And we didn’t even talk about crafters yet.
How is such a traumatized individual able to craft high quality gear/food/potions what requires a lot of precision and common sense? :man_shrugging:

I appreciate your way to look at it, but i still stand by that point. The AI is just awful in my opinion, and got even worse lately.