FEEDBACK: Broken Pets

[Zyerz]

Im general my dog attacks and obeys my commands, but at times, he just stands there, with enemies around him, doing absolutely nothing. I have to click on the attack command or on the follow me command a few times so he snaps out of it. And at times, even if he's surrounded by monsters that are attacking him, he'll just stand still and let himself be killed. I really like the concept of pets, and would love to see them work perfectly.
Also, he seems to have a knack of disappearing (but still being physically there) after coming out a cave. He cant attack, but he can move and be healed. :/
Thats on my lv 15 aritificer Fullmettal on Sarlona.

[Carkolda]

I've had an issue with the cat in TIM where the cat doesn't know how to stay. I'll post it as a sentry at the main dias and I'll float down to the bridge and it will follow me down there, drawing aggro right along with it, even though I told it to stay. That's broken imho.

[Eladiun]

Between sessions...not entirely sure it happens so often that it's more of a shock when the pet does anything than when it breaks. The sad part is they worked great when Artificers were in Beta. Now, the pet is virtually useless.

Honestly this isn't something that needs patching it's something that needs a complete recoding. You have two pet classes. It's time for the Pet AI to be rewritten by someone skilled. Just slapping more perfume on this pig won't improve it's smell.

[Latric]

The hirelings are exhibiting this same behavior. It can easily be reproduced by taking them up a ladder or swimming. This is hitting enough people it should rate a priority fix.

[Alrik_Fassbauer]

I've seen my arti pet trying to climb a ladder. Yes, indeed. Don't remember anymore if it succeeded or not, because I was busy after I reached the top.

[jcoffey]

Not sure if it has been said but the feat:Augment Summoning is not adding Fortification to pets nor is the normal Fort being applied at least to Artificer Defenders.

[LittleTinSoldier]

I play a level 22 Artificer on Sarlona that relies heavily on my pet.

My feelings:

I was practically giddy when I discovered I could ship buff my pet...more strength? More dexterity? Attack buffs with the Training Dummy? Woot!!
(Incidentally, if I don't dismiss my dog or end up with him destroyed before Part 5 of the Shroud, he becomes the one member of the raid that still has Ship Buffs when we face Arraetrikos...how awesome is that? )

These days, It's not worth it--I consider them a pet breaker. I found there to be an art just getting the Hours of Practice buff on the thing...before the dummy was altered in U14, I would have to set my dog on the dummy and assist him by shooting the thing down to almost nothing so that he could get in the last swipe before it regenerated. These days he is able to do it himself, though I still usually assist to get it done faster. Still, I have to make sure he gets it first--if I assist too much and get HoP first, it's over.
He'll stand there and take a half-hearted swipe every once in a while. There is certainly a difference between the first time the dummy drops and afterwards (as I said before, I make sure HE gets HoP FIRST).


Then there is the issue of whether buffs are worth it, given if I have a client crash (such as every time I go into the Desert) my dog will need to be reunleashed--minus all the buffs i spent time acquiring--when I log back in (I still have all my buffs and summoned bolts).

I get Hover Dog--a sure-fire indicator my dog will do nothing (or worse: float over to the the target and stare at it, turning to face it as it moves). Sometimes dismissing and re-unleashing (again, a buff-stripping move) will solve. Sometimes, it's only a temporary fix.

One thing I've noticed is that my pet is very sensitive--the more damage he has, the more problematic he can be. There are times he will stand in one place after a fight and not return to me, but as soon as I cast a repair he'll come right over.
Lately, I've been keen on keeping his red bar topped off as quickly and regularly as possible, even if it's down just a little bit.

I recently finished a Chamber of Raiyum where I got my loot, recalled to the Refuge, took the ship back to the Marketplace and was halfway to House C before I realized he wasn't behind me.
He was Undead [I can't re-unleash him, because I can only have one pet at a time, I can't revive him because he's not dead and I've lost his bar so i can't dismiss and re-unleash].
I had him stationary a couple of times during the quest to keep him out of harms way, but thought he was on Follow when I left...

I've also come across a new phenomenon, where I dismiss my pet and still get the clanking sounds of him running behind me [Phantom Pet?].

And yet,
Despite all this, I wouldn't trade my pet for the world. My defender is a large portion of why I wanted the class enough to get it during U11, and a large aspect of my strategy.

[Sgt_Hart]

Noticed similar symptoms with Hirelings(Especially Battlecat). I've been tellign folks I run with to "Cycle the AI" on problem critters By Setting it to passive, then defensive, then Active.

With hirelings at least, this does temporarily solve the issue, but it usually only lasts for one engagement, Sometimes two. Another frequent symptom is the hireling won't follow after an engagement. May be a halo effect, may be direct related. My hunch say's its in someway tied to the perception of new enemies, and what to do until-then/unless-ones-near.

[cpw_acc]

I recently finished a Chamber of Raiyum where I got my loot, recalled to the Refuge, took the ship back to the Marketplace and was halfway to House C before I realized he wasn't behind me.
He was Undead [I can't re-unleash him, because I can only have one pet at a time, I can't revive him because he's not dead and I've lost his bar so i can't dismiss and re-unleash].
I had him stationary a couple of times during the quest to keep him out of harms way, but thought he was on Follow when I left...

I've also come across a new phenomenon, where I dismiss my pet and still get the clanking sounds of him running behind me [Phantom Pet?].

And yet,
Despite all this, I wouldn't trade my pet for the world. My defender is a large portion of why I wanted the class enough to get it during U11, and a large aspect of my strategy.

.
There is certainly a new bug since 14.2 where on finishing a quest your pet (Druid or artificer) will get left in limbo. Can't resummon, can't revive. Usual thing: patch fixes one bug, introduces several more...

[Brattyone]

.
There is certainly a new bug since 14.2 where on finishing a quest your pet (Druid or artificer) will get left in limbo. Can't resummon, can't revive. Usual thing: patch fixes one bug, introduces several more...

I was wondering if this was a new bug or not. Every time I finished out of a quest I lost my pet wolf. I didn't try to resummon him though. I just dismissed him and then resummoned him. That did get annoying after a bit though.

[Starla70]

Both my druid and artificer pets do this. I finish a quest and it is less then a 10% chance my pet is coming out with me. This is on Argonesson levels 5 to 10, which is all I have with those pets. The pets may or may not shrine, that is a roll of the idea these days.

[jcoffey]

A well prepared/built Arti/Druid pet brings a lot to a group,you just have to know how to play them.

[wey4lust]

Same here broken pet

Char: Millusia
Class: Arti
Pet: Rusty

[Expalphalog]

Not sure if it has been said but the feat:Augment Summoning is not adding Fortification to pets nor is the normal Fort being applied at least to Artificer Defenders.

Same with Druid Wolves - no fortification from any source is being applied.

[AdamantVirtue]

Had this issue on my Druid Bhadger on Cannith last night. Summoned wolf was right next to me chewing on kobolds in WW, but pet was hiding somewhere in the back. Does seem to have started since latest patch. Dismissing and resummoning seemed to help a little but not fix it.

Also had to dismiss / resummon when finishing a quest - that's definitely new since last patch.

[mbaucco]

I get the "phantom footsteps" bug a lot more now than previously (if you unsummon your pet, his footsteps follow you around). The newest bug is I will come out of a quest and my pet will be in limbo. His health bar is still up, but the toolbar is gone and have to dismiss and recall. Recently, I went into a quest area for the second stage and found a zombie version of my pet, just sitting next to a bridge. Apparently, the model was never cleaned up from the last time I entered.

The biggest problem is still that the pet just becomes completely unresponsive far too often. I am constantly having to unsummon and re-summon my pet in an adventure to get even marginal use out of it.

I think the best thing for you guys would be to google "artificer pet bug". There are tons of posts on this issue with a lot of useful detail and what has been happening with arti pets.

Thanks,
Matt

[Phaeton_Seraph]

I've noticed it happen whenever the artificer Pet warps into the water to get close to it's master, when it gets out of the water it's broken, sometimes dismissing and summoning again works, other times it doesn't.

I've noticed similar things happen to hirelings, though a lot more randomly, for example: sometimes Cleric hires will just not heal for no apparent reason, even though they were doing fine earlier.

Yes. Hirelings and Pets both seem to break in similar ways. Often they move to perform an action, as per their AI, or as per your orders, and then fail to perform any action.

When I used my free LR I made my pet a bad bad box breaker, so I've observed this more often since. He runs up to a box and stares at it. Sometimes it appears as though he is attacking - he may even try to intimidate the box, the genius - but with no result. Other times, he just seems to stare. I've seen fighter/pally hireling rush mobs and just stand there too. I've had decent luck with my Cleric/FvS hires, or maybe I was too busy dying to notice how he died.

Other times, I can't get a hire or pet to pull a lever, use a rune, heal, intimidate &c. No matter how many times I select target and click, it doesn't even appear to be trying. It walks up to the object, arrives, and returns to me.
Usually, a dismiss and re-summon resolves this, but there are times when it reoccurs repeatedly.
I've had this occur simultaneously to a Hire and a Pet, in dungeons where neither water or ladders seemed likely to be an issue.



My above examples are different than the Pet's floaty feet issues. In those cases, he runs around trying to do things, but it's like he's incapable of actually interacting.
I usually call him a gay-giraffe at these times. Like when Proximo, in Gladiator, complains that the giraffes he bought won't mate, they just stand around. At these times, I understand how disappointed Proximo must have felt; he was expecting to watch some action and reap some reward...



Another oddity I've noticed is that, sometimes, he will break a box and stand there staring at his broken box until he rubber bands to my new location (if I proceed without him), or until I order him to come, or until he is attacked/aggroed - and there may still be many nearby boxes to break or even mobs to fight.
As having a box-breaker is new-ish to me, and Hires don't break boxes (and why don't they?), I can't be sure if this is a bug or not. But having had his company as a lawful good dog for 23 levels, it seems... irregular.



Finally, it occasionally occurs that, when ship-buffing, my Pet gets trapped bellow decks - I think. I come out onto the deck, but he doesn't. If I call him to me, I hear his footfalls, and yet he isn't visible, or selectable. I find that jumping off a higher point, like the bridge and calling him to me while in mid-air forces him to teleport to my location.


One thing I wish could be changed about pets and hires is to have an offset when they teleport to my location. Because they teleport to my exact location. In a quest with lots of jumping... like the beginning of Dreaming Darkly, having a Pet, and maybe a Hire instantly appear on your location while you are trying to aim your jump in mid-air, is annoying and distracting and can obstruct your view at a bad moment. But mostly it's annoying.
The simple non-solution is to make it hold position while you are engaging in such activities, but it's to easy to forget them there until it's (almost?) too late, or you exit a quest and can't get your pet back because you left him inside.



Lastly, I would like to see some consistent differentiation and usage of names for "pets" and "companions." There are some people prejudiced against Pets, or who don't have enough experience to know how to control them or how they can be controlled. They'll be in a raid and say "no pets" (and if they're not the party leader I find this even more annoying), but they equate Pets with Summoned Creatures and use the terms interchangeably. Or others mean "Summoned Creatures/Monsters" and will say, "oh, Artificer/Druid dogs are OK", when you call them on this - but with some of the grief you can get about your Pet, it causes a bad reaction in the Pet owner. I've seen other people complain about pets or talk about hating them, when they mean (cosmetic) "Creature Companions."

Part of the problem is the fault of DDO. There are places where Summoned Creatures/Monsters are referred to as pets in in-game descriptions. The cosmetic Creature Companions and Pets both have Companion Collars.

I know some people don't care for their Pet, underutilise it, and hate it. But when you take the time to get the most out of it, going from lvl 1-20/5, it can become as much a part of your character as a Barbarian's melee weapon, or another character's shield. Even if you have a love-hate relationship with the buggy little turd.

[Ebondevil]

Since Update 16 I've also noticed that when Artificer Pets (not had experience with Druid yet) and Hirelings warp to you, they tend to drop any soulstone they are carrying, frequently they can't navigate the terrain and need to warp to you, but then they leave the soulstone behind, very annoying if it's your soulstone they're carrying,

I ended up stuck in the Belly of the Beast, quite literally, due to this behaviour.

[cpw_acc]

Yes to both bugs...the dog always drops soulstone when it warps, which is pretty much all the time unless its a straightforward level terrain. Completely breaks this ability which used to be really useful.
And often my dog gets into its no-attacking state, where it runs up to enemies and just stands there, usually with its head down. I'm pretty sure it gets into this state after climbing a ladder (not every time, but usually).

[AsherStar]

I've watched my iron defender just stand there and look stupid way too many times, and I've watched my FvS and Cleric hirelings die way too many times with nearly full spell points, YOU'RE A FREAKING HEALER FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!!!!!!!!!