Hireling AI, Has It Gotten Worse?

[ahzad]

I'm not a long time player, a little over a year and I've used hirelings quite a bit during that time and for the most part they've performed adequately but ever since the last update it seems that the AI for them have gotten worse. Now they stand around and not doing anything, even thought you are clicking on their commands, more often now. Is this just me or is there really an issue with them currently?

[jortann]

The hirelings are performing excellent. Actually they are too good. My son and I ran a lot of missions over the winter holiday with just the two of us and two hirelings. I may never need to group again, because with two hirelings we are pretty much invinsible.

One of the new things the hirelings like to do is kill steal. Some of the clerics are awesome at stealling those last couple of hps with a searing light spell.

We also ran with a bard. She was frustrating because she kept soundbursting or hypnotising all the bad dudes so we could pick them off one at a time. What fun is it if you are not totally surrounded by bad guys pounding on you when you are fighting for your life....

Sometimes I think the hirelings play a little better than I might. Maybe I should just hire one and pike the mission.

[Solmage]

I'm not a long time player, a little over a year and I've used hirelings quite a bit during that time and for the most part they've performed adequately but ever since the last update it seems that the AI for them have gotten worse. Now they stand around and not doing anything, even thought you are clicking on their commands, more often now. Is this just me or is there really an issue with them currently?

I see no issues, if anything, they contribute more than an average pug.

[My2Cents]

I've noticed a number of better things about the hirelings, but I also noticed they seem slower to respond sometimes.

One thing I've noticed is that when I have a cleric hireling sometimes it will simply appear to stop following me and I suddenly find myself in the middle of battle without my trusty hireling healer. I'm not sure why and when this happens yet but its caught me offguard more than once...

[justhavinfun]

Seems to me that the cleric hirelings have gotten better. The fact that they now neutralize poison, cure disease, remove curses, and dispell magic is a great improvement. Do they still get stuck, stand in traps, jump into and stand in lava and acid pools till they die? Well of course they do and that would be a nice fix to at least have them realize that this hurts and get out of it, But I feel that would ruin firewall by making the mobs smart enough to realize the same thing. Just park your hireling, deal with the bad stuff that they tend to die in then call them to you.

[Marcus-Hawkeye]

I've noticed a degrade in hireling AI it seems. Last time I went through korthos i took the cleric with me through most of it and it was decent. I just finished going through it again, and she seemed to have feeblemind cast on her or something cause she was slow to cast, step into traps where she didn't the last time, etc. She was also drawing more aggro this time though and wasting most of the SP on herself. We will see how other hireling si've used before will respond now as I begin leveling more.

[go21134]

One thing I have noticed about the hirelings though, that in the past year they actually took care of the people in your party, healing them when needed. Maybe its just me, but the healing seems only towards the contracted worker now ... its like none of the cleric/favored soul hirelings even care about the other 1-4 members in the group (maybe even 5 sometimes). But aye, I do say in my personal care, they do the job quite well. When I'm poisoned, pop goes protection. Oh no a curse! Poof goes remove curse.

I guess its a trade off, more towards the buyer, not so much for everyone else ^_^

[FastTaco]

Hirelings fail concentration checks waaay to much, do they even get a check? Is there skill at like 4? Why don't they get player feats... quicken should be a minimum.

Also if you give them a command while there doing something, whatever there doing fails and they don't do what you asked either. Its worst on the bards when asking for a haste right after they whip out the guitar... horrible.

[stoerm]

Hirelings were quoted as being a major cause of lag. They must have changed something to fix it (bards are back). Maybe they've allocated less resources to AI on the servers, resulting in a perception of less responsiveness.

Generally hireling AI has been improving.

[Grimmsie]

Yes, in my opinion they have gotten worse..

First of all they fail to do what they are commanded to, especially when needed the most. If in example I'm fighting a bigger mob and the hireling is around and it starts doing the searing light attack it will forget what it was commanded to do and won't do it after it's done with the attack, same thing when it gets hit by a mob..sometimes i gotta click on the heal spell twice for it to go off at all...

Mass heal spell is a pain to use, it's slow and it usually gets interrupted by something else (like the attack or hireling being hit).

They will still get stuck on various locations, like corners or even on plain locations like demon sands, if you don't summon them they won't come after you...

I've learned to put them away from myself when fighting a bigger mob, so that they don't die immediately, this is the biggest pain - when they get hit they just stand there and die..ok so it's only a hireling it doesn't have much brains but come on...I could swear they always land in the trap deliberately...

Oh and summoning them sometimes also doesn't work, I keep clicking and clicking and they will appear but after a certain amount of time..

Other than that - I love how they heal your curses/disease/poisons now, this is definitely a plus and an improvement..

[wolflordnexus]

Different hirelings work well... different. Blast in aggressive mode is a total beast if your a WF and you can't get barrage yet I highly recommend him. He has hast on his bar repairs himself and you very regularly. He also has a ton of boom and no qualms about sucking down pots.

[go21134]

Sorry for being somewhat random, but as they pertain to hirelings ... any news on those rogue hires?

[Phemt81]

The hirelings are performing excellent. Actually they are too good. My son and I ran a lot of missions over the winter holiday with just the two of us and two hirelings. I may never need to group again, because with two hirelings we are pretty much invinsible.

Sometimes I think the hirelings play a little better than I might. Maybe I should just hire one and pike the mission.

You are sarcastic, right?

I see no issues, if anything, they contribute more than an average pug.

Nice joke

Now talking seriously, hirelings need serious work.

Try using Rita the 5th level wizard; she keep casting grease on your feet!
Or try any cleric, they get lost 50% of times and often do not heal you, even if they are in defensive mode, come on! It' the only thing they got to do!

[Postumus]

You are sarcastic, right?



Nice joke

Now talking seriously, hirelings need serious work.

Try using Rita the 5th level wizard; she keep casting grease on your feet!
Or try any cleric, they get lost 50% of times and often do not heal you, even if they are in defensive mode, come on! It' the only thing they got to do!

I've noticed the clerics are much less responsive with spells since the last update. I've had to watch myself and many group members die needless deaths as I furiously click on the heal button for 5-7 seconds, only to have the hireling ignore it, do nothing, then fire off the spell after the player was dead.


The random zerging while in defensive mode also startled me the first few times it happened. Watching Flower tear open a door and go racing off down the hallway and around the corner headlong into a pack of undead was funny the first time it happened. Now that behavior is annoying.

[baletraeger]

I've been running solo the last little while since I'm playing off hours lately, and allmy hires were running fine until Arnal Swartz came along; he has to be the dumbest dwarfin Zendrik. On occassion he will follow orders, but most of the time he just stands there and gets himself killed; some meatshield, pfft!

[Phemt81]

I've noticed the clerics are much less responsive with spells since the last update. I've had to watch myself and many group members die needless deaths as I furiously click on the heal button for 5-7 seconds, only to have the hireling ignore it, do nothing, then fire off the spell after the player was dead.

This. +1

[brian14]

Same thing. Few days ago I did Running with the Devils with a PUG. I had a cleric hireling -- I think it was Jatrina Sartosa. I noticed that one sorcerer's red bar would drop very quickly, so I targeted her and clicked on Jatrina's heal button. Nothing happened. After several attempts I said "sod this" and healed the sorc myself. Luckily my CSW + superior devotion was adequate to the task. This happened several times during quest; I wonder if the sorc ever noticed she was getting her heals from the ranger.

Jatrina was healing me without problems.

[Phemt81]

Same thing. Few days ago I did Running with the Devils with a PUG. I had a cleric hireling -- I think it was Jatrina Sartosa. I noticed that one sorcerer's red bar would drop very quickly, so I targeted her and clicked on Jatrina's heal button.

If you re having problems you can try right clicking your mate and then the blue shield button ("guard") to move hireling for her protection. But be aware that he will (should, lol) be always near him then, like it is of his property.

Gotta also notice after a run, that the 19th lvl halfling cleric is really smarter than others, he heals quite fast and get lost a lot less than others

[Solmage]

You are sarcastic, right?



Nice joke

Now talking seriously, hirelings need serious work.

Try using Rita the 5th level wizard; she keep casting grease on your feet!
Or try any cleric, they get lost 50% of times and often do not heal you, even if they are in defensive mode, come on! It' the only thing they got to do!

I was only partially joking. For some reason, SOME hirelings are not as responsive as others, but many are so responsive as to truly be better than most pugs, and I'll take them into almost any quest over our level with the 100% certainty that we will have an easy time with it. (Sadly these days we're limited to only max 3 levels over our characters... but this does mean I'll take level 12 hirelings into vale quests with my lvl 13 chars, f.ex)

(Exceptions: Random aggro quests in which the boss has true seeing. For other random quests, I'll just make them invisible and put them in passive, a bit away from the fight)

Edit: Btw, I have their powers set as hotkeys, so perhaps that may be why I see different results. And I do press the heal button more than once just in case, but he does cast it as fast as I can expect him/her/it to

[NecroKovy]

My hireling is never anything but a DV battery. When I solo, or party with small groups, I generally take care of all my buffs/summoning, then fill up the tank as best I can. I park him/her at the entrance, and then when I get to a shrine I call it to me to rest, and repeat the process. Until they start knowing to cast inflict on a PM (do they at some point? If so I've never seen it), that's the only real use they have for me.