Thrall "defense" trigger

[doctorfeh]

So in the absence of any actual way to command thralls or set their aggression level, there are currently only two ways to get them to help you in a fight:

1. Stand like a doofus and intentionally take a damaging hit from the enemy, which isn’t so great against a boss or something that can stunlock you, inflict poisons/bleeds, etc.

2. Run the enemy in circles around your unresponsive thrall until you can get them to hit the thrall by accident, at which point the thrall (usually) joins in.

Technique #1 is potentially deadly. Technique #2 looks extremely silly and more appropriate to Yakety Sax than any soaring Conan score.

Now don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the passive default right now because you can run past things without your thrall stopping to fight when they aggro on you. But after over a year of early access + release, it’s high time to consider providing at least the level of basic attack and retreat functionality that WoW had fifteen years ago.

Failing that, can you at least extend the defense trigger to include you getting hit while your shield is up? That would assist option #1 since I’m not exposing myself to massive damage just to get my thrall to wake up and help. It also is a pretty clear indicator you’ve decided to engage rather than run. But right now I have to lower my shield and get hit or the thrall just picks their nose.

[Servian]

No. First, we need a tedious system of feeding thralls or have them die.

Seriously though, lots of people have been asking for thralls to be fixed for a long time. It’s pretty frustrating that they decided to add a very unpopular mechanic to make thralls more frustrating, instead of fixing them so they’re actually useful.

Maybe I wouldn’t be so opposed to having to feed thralls if they weren’t so broken.

[doctorfeh]

Absolutely agreed and I’ve already left feedback to that end on the Testlive forum. Here I’m just going to go with the state of the live game where the food system isn’t implemented yet and hopefully might still not be (at least not in its current form), so I’m just commenting and suggesting based on things as they stand.

I’d really like the shield tweak at least.

[MrFubar]

Add in a trigger for you attack something. If you hit something your thrall should join in.

Archer thralls need to have a much longer range agro trigger, Had a purge the other day and non of the archer thralls standing in easy bow range joined in. We had to move the thralls to the edge directly above us while fighting the boss, and still didnt join in probably until we took a hit. Thrall behavior right now kind of defeats the purpose of even training defensive thralls other than for looks.

[doctorfeh]

I seem to remember archer thralls being much more responsive in early access… maybe even too responsive since they would constantly snipe the baby shalebacks that were spawning in their nest a hundred feet from my base. Now, yeah, it’s hard to get them to pay attention even as you’re being chased around by enemies practically under their feet.

Anyhow, the whole trigger of thralls not attacking until you take damage shouldn’t even be a thing unless they’re actively following you as an escort. If they’re just manning the walls they ought to function with the same aggro hair trigger the NPCs do when you skulk around their camps. Enemy gets in their sight and range and they start shooting.

[LanguishViking]

It would probably be best if you could set aggro level on your thralls.

Max - aggros on everything
High - aggros on predators, npcs and players
Normal - aggros on anthing attacking or being attacked by owner(s) or friendly thrall/building
Low - aggros on anything attacking it
Minimal - avoids combat at all times (run away!)

We already have multiple layers of aggro ai, babies, prey animals, kudus, predators, bosses, npcs etc. Allow us to set aggro AI for our thralls and much of these problems get solved.