I mentioned this in another thread, but I’ll throw up here as well (and I’m sure I’m not the first) Thralls and pets need to have basic AI settings that can be chosen by the player.
Passive. It will follow you, but will never engage an enemy or path away from you.
Defensive. It will only engage an enemy that has attacked you and/or those enemies that you have directly attacked. It will never select an enemy that has not damaged you, and that you have not damaged.
Aggressive. The wildly broken AI that the thralls and pets exhibit now.
Take a poll, and I guarantee you, 99% of the responses would show that players prefer #2 to all behaviors unless they’re gathering resources. Then possibly #1.
I remember seeing this before, might be from the same user In that thread I believe I said to make it selectable only for human thralls, but for animals each temperament could be tied to how the creature behaves in the wild:
-docile creatures never attack (essentially pack mules)
-creatures that warn before attack being the defensive type that waits for the first hit
-creatures that attack without warning would be the aggressive type, but it automatically engages only currently aggro’d enemies (dont want them rampaging in serpermaru)
But if only one can be done i would prefer that they always engage whoever is targeting me, as soon as they target me. I hate watching my follower just sit there while 2 dudes run towards me with weapons in hand and a third one is drawing his bow.
i’d like to see the ability to select the targets manually for thralls… allow us to set “headhunters” to use a baton on all T3 and or 4 tralls and to use weapons on T1 and 2…
Yes, I like these never ending and repetitive discussions about Pet and Thrall Improvements.
There are so many suggestions the community made since Release (or should I say since EA).
Let’s summarize them as the big Thrall/Pet Overhaul Funcom announced nearly 1 year ago and the whole community is awaiting now for a long time.
I know the Devs are working on this overhaul and I must say I have really huge expectations to this.
Survive - build - dominate. The first two features are well represented in this game, especially the building system is for me one of the best building Systems compared to every other similar game out there in the world.
The last word is „dominate“! And this Word has the lowest significance in this game at the moment. It is represented by the Thrall/Pet System and by PvP features.
The actual Thrall and Petsystem is not very motivating. Surely the players like to collect them and you need a few Thralls to stand against purges and other players or to occupy workstations but you will never feel like a real Master or chief. This system is too passive, you can’t influence it by your will, can’t plan, can’t organize. There is nothing really to do when the thrall or pet is tamed and equipped. They are standing and watching or working in their workbenches. You can take one of them with you on your journey to carry goods or give support in fights. You can’t handle them tactically and there are still problems with the AI.
It is never wrong to look at other games with similar and very popular features - Ark and his dinosaurs = pets. The possibilities what you can do with these dinosaurs are gigantic and really motivating especially for long term playing. Of course this game is not CE and it’s about dinosaurs.
But hey - Conan Exiles is about Thralls. What’s about them? Why can’t I name them, why can’t I command them, why can’t I train them, why can’t I give them special professions, why can’t I free them, why can’t I judge them… There could be so many possibilities.
As the last dlc came out (Riddle of steel) and there was a placeholder for a fighting pit in it, I was totally exited. Will we be able to let our Thralls fight against Thralls of other players? - what a cool new feature this would be.
The Thrall/Pet Overhaul is really needed. It will be a basic and motivating feature for this game which will open doors to new expansions, possibilities and even payed DLCs.
I really hope Funcom will use the development of the Thrall system as a chance to reach a new level.
For thralls, I’d also like to see commands to Subdue vs. Slay particular targets. Right now, thralls will sometimes switch to a trunch when they see you do the same, but it’s so unreliable that everyone I know manually swaps their thralls weapons for trunches and back.
If there was a keybind to activate against the focus of our target lock (or mouse cursor focus for PC) to specify Slay or Subdue, that would be a huge help.
Yup. If you give a thrall multiple weapon types, there’s no consistency on what they pick. They will also attempt to use any tools on them as weapons, and always seem to prefer one-handled weapons/tools over two-handed weapons. To say the thrall AI is brain damaged is understating it.
I really hope for a thrall/pet system overhaul. How much more immersive would it be if they could look more “alive” rather than standing on their guard positions like turrets.
It would be cool if they had a “patrol” mode, where they would path around within the boundaries of the territory that you’ve claimed. But, I’d settle for basic behaviors that aren’t just broken for right now.
Lock on + interaction button to have your thrall/ pet focus on that enemy. Hold interact for non-lethal if your thrall has a KO weapon. Once target is down and there are more hostiles currently aggro’d, it will target the nearest one to its position. It will ignore any non-aggro’d mobs. This would be great to tell your follower to take out that annoying archer while you deal with the melee enemies, or when you spot at T4 artisan between other NPCs
In that thread I believe I said to make it selectable only for human thralls, but for animals each temperament could be tied to how the creature behaves in the wild: