Darkness and AI

Post by **Binkyuk** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 8:52 pm

you asked for feedback on the new AI behaviour when confronted by darkness...

Non-casters unreservedly much much better than before.
The way the enemies slowly walk into the darkness and sort of explore it is good. a decent sized mob will flush my wizard out of her darkness after a moderate number of spells. It doesn't cause so much of a problem to my tiefling, but at least it keeps him moving if he wants to be close enough to use sneak attacks but not get caught at it. At least i can no longer park in the middle of a mob and go make tea while the xp rolls in.

The dispelling darkness on sight is a step in the right direction but a mixed improvement.
My tiefling has problems with it if he's caught unawares, but i found if i saw the caster coming i just had to wait until the casting animation then leg it sideways. As they cast from far away unless i was unlucky i'd outrun the dispel. As long as you know how many dispels a monster has mem'ed just evade until they're out. Closing a bit before casting might make this harder. Enclosed area (giant mountain cave) was a bit harder but still didn't prove too much of a problem.
On the other hand my wizard loves it. I invis and walk into a room, then conjure darkness on the other side of it. All the casters in the room promptly simultaneously throw their dispels at it. I can safely neutralise all the dispels with a couple of level 2 spells.
Maybe get them to cast ultravision first, then cast the dispel directly at you. Would work a treat against sub race darkness, not sure if it'd be exploitable with normal darkness.

Hope this helps.

deathdearler1 · Post by **deathdearler1** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 10:09 pm

yeah, i was pleasantly suprised when one of the giants casted ultra then preceded to dispell my darkness. i like the exploration of the mobs into darkness, however i noticed if you cast 2 spells directly next to each other when they explore 1 of them if you run to the other they get lost in the first and never come out. i am a little worried about my tiefling darkness as you cast it on yourself and move from zone to zone it no longer shows up. this is kinda bad for you because for some reason it makes you blind. if your ultra runs out and then the darkness you have to log off the mod then back in otherwise your char is blind and cannot see unless you continuously cast ultra on yourself.

Post by **Flailer** » Wed Oct 05, 2005 10:10 pm

Great! Thanks for the feedback. The NPC *should* actually be casting ultravision first off, I'll have to check on that. And, casting darkness on the other side of the room and mobs exploring that is perhaps realistic. Might toss in some more randomness than I am into it though.

Thanks

AggieDan · Post by **AggieDan** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 9:07 am

Yes, I noticed some AI changes too when using my drow that made me less able to depend on darkness as a permanent aura.

The thing this has done for me though is made me revert back to my standard tactics that I'd use with a tough melee character... Bull rush the mage to muck with their concentration and get in his face before they can cast too many spells.

Though, I do like the randomness of the response when it comes to ultra/dispel. It seems more realistic since a magic user is really gonna have to ask himself, "Am I gonna dispel this or get ultra first? Can I get my next spell off before I'm getting hit?"

One thing that I've found also works with my drow is to have a few extra darkness spells slotted in case there are more than one mage in the area. I can have them bumbling around in their own darkness and rush them.

But, either way, it has made it much more exciting for those of us used to walking around in a bubble all day. And makes it more fun in groups as you team up with fellow drow so you always have a backup darkness.

Elagneros · Post by **Elagneros** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 3:10 pm

Sounds like a mostly good change. Drow had it far too easy with their darkness before. The only downside is that it'll probably make things even harder for my wizard character.

trent · Post by **trent** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 12:42 am

I noticed a few problems with my drow char .... the a.i works well but if my char loses ultravision while in the darkness then all the mobs just go charging in like its not even there anymore ..... also it gets quite confusing if you change screens after using it on yourself cause for some odd reason you can see it anymore unless you log out and back in ..... a few times some odd things happened when it wore off .. everything just dissapears and i have to use ultravision to see

.... over all the changes are good ones and about drows having it easy well i think the ecl evens it out

Post by **Binkyuk** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 6:35 pm

yes, losing ultravision is a major problem due to the bugs. worst case they can see you but you can't see them, which really sucks.
IMO drow did have it too easy - once i discovered the way of darkness (believe it or not this took me until level 12 or so - i went drow for the dex bonus for my monk multiclass and didn't realise how awesome the darkness was) the main obstacle was chronic boredom more than any difficulty.

Anyway, my actual reason for posting:
I don't think this is a new problem but when fighting enemies that begin an encounter with a spell (arctic wolves, ice giant protectors, ice troll moojoos) if you're shrouded in darkness the spell can't fire but they don't fall back to melee, they just sit there and stare at you menacingly. I always feel kind of cheap with racial darkness but i felt *really* cheap when i waltzed into a room of 4 protectors and slaughtered them all with my level 17 without even using an arrow.
Ice Efreets have similar behaviour on the surface (they start with a cone of cold or fire and then go to melee) but don't show the same problem.

Kromix · Post by **Kromix** » Sat Oct 08, 2005 11:51 pm

i was doing some testing with Darkness and found out that no having ultra at all when going into battle makes the enemy's rush you...

or some of them actually...

Post by **Binkyuk** » Sun Oct 09, 2005 6:06 am

okay, bugs with ultravision and darkness so you can avoid them.
Unfortunately i believe these are all problems with the game engine's tracking of spell effects and not something the devs can fix, so i suggest you just work around them.

1. if you cast darkness first and ultra after you will not count as invisible, so the enemies will see you (only if darkness is on yourself) - cast ultra first.
2. if you cast ultra, then darkness, then the ultra wears off or is dispelled you will not count as invisible.
3. If you cast multiple darknesses, when the first wears off you will count as undarked despite the presence of the other one (Entering and leaving the darkness will fix this, but this is impossible if it's centred on you).
4. resting with darkness but not ultravision can permanently blind you so that you will only be able to see with ultravision even when not in darkness until you relog (i think this might be something to do with the way blindness is applied when you rest and when in darkness, and nwn doesn't track them separately).