Bad puppy?

[Azonalanthious]

Ok, so I want to figure out if this is a bug, a know issue, something with an easy fix, etc. If not, then we'll see where we go from there but I figured I would ask first:

Also a disclaimer, it may well have been doing this all the time and I just didn't notice in the lowest level quests because they are so easy to solo, and its now standing out as I get to harder content. Sure feels like it was working much better before though.

My dog has stopped attacking. He'll still run up to enemies (and boxes) but won't actually do anything once there. Its not 100% of the time, but more often then not, he won't attack at all through an entire adventure. Dismissing and re summoning doesn't seem to help, logging out then back in seems to help, but inconstantly and even if I get a log were he attacks, it won't generally stay that way.

Recent things that I could see being a root cause:

1) Added hunter of boxes (seems the most likely culprit as it effects who/what he attacks?) Also recently added the dex enhancement, and the second tier of the AC/reflex one.

2) Had a weird glitch with the level 3 quest from Scrag in the Harbor (where you have to lure the dogs without killing). Dismissed my pet before entering so I wouldn't have to worry about him killing the dogs, but somehow an invisible version entered with me and went dog slaughtering even though he wasn't showing up as present anywhere in my UI. Exit and reload seemed to fix this, and so I just moved on without thinking about it.

3) Downtime before last (yesterday morning) also seems to line up with about when I started noticing things.

4) Had the day off and nothing important, so it was a much longer then usual play session. By the end was noticing a real slow down of graphics as my comp got 'worn out'. Doesn't seem likely as I was nothing problems from the get go, but tossing it out there.

[Adrenas]

I had this happen to me a few days ago. Sometimes the dog will move around floating slightly above the ground too. It seems to happen after long durations of play and it seems to occur faster the more often you do things like featherfall off of a cliff where the dogs AI is trying to figure out how to get to you (and in the end teleports). Closing the client and restarting it has always fixed the issue for me. It seems like the longer you play the more glitchy the dog's AI gets. Your PC seeming to get "tired" is most likely a memory leak. DDO creates memory leaks like a mutha especially during long periods of play, it will cache memory and then just not let it go when it is needed for something else. In high RAM systems like mine it can take many hours to notice, but in lower RAM systems you will need to restart your PC every couple hours of play to retain performance. The dogs need a lot of work to fix their glitches, but restarting your client should put the dog back to normal and restarting your PC can make the game perform better period.

Also, anti-virus/anti-malware/windows/a million other things tend to automatically update while you are playing and while that is happening you might notice your PC is trying harder to keep up with the game, try alt-tabing out of DDO and checking your system tray if the game is acting weird. I've talked to people that actually had disk defrag running while they were playing because they forgot what time they had scheduled the task. Anyway, I hope this helps.

[mystafyi]

. Dismissed my pet before entering so I wouldn't have to worry about him killing the dogs, but somehow an invisible version entered with me and went dog slaughtering even though he wasn't showing up as present anywhere in my UI. Exit and reload seemed to fix this, and so I just moved on without thinking about it.

there is a bug with being able to summon multiple invisible puppies. Since this could be used by players to some advantage i cant say more.

[Azonalanthious]

I had this happen to me a few days ago. Sometimes the dog will move around floating slightly above the ground too. It seems to happen after long durations of play and it seems to occur faster the more often you do things like featherfall off of a cliff where the dogs AI is trying to figure out how to get to you (and in the end teleports). Closing the client and restarting it has always fixed the issue for me. It seems like the longer you play the more glitchy the dog's AI gets. Your PC seeming to get "tired" is most likely a memory leak. DDO creates memory leaks like a mutha especially during long periods of play, it will cache memory and then just not let it go when it is needed for something else. In high RAM systems like mine it can take many hours to notice, but in lower RAM systems you will need to restart your PC every couple hours of play to retain performance. The dogs need a lot of work to fix their glitches, but restarting your client should put the dog back to normal and restarting your PC can make the game perform better period.

Also, anti-virus/anti-malware/windows/a million other things tend to automatically update while you are playing and while that is happening you might notice your PC is trying harder to keep up with the game, try alt-tabing out of DDO and checking your system tray if the game is acting weird. I've talked to people that actually had disk defrag running while they were playing because they forgot what time they had scheduled the task. Anyway, I hope this helps.

Thanks for the info/reply! yeah, I know the memory leak issue -- I've usually got 4-5 hours or so before it becomes noticeable on this pc, but a reboot addresses it just fine as you indicated. Just wasn't worried enough about it to reboot when I knew I wouldn't be on that much longer by the time it got bad. I was just mentioning that it had/was occurring in case it happened to be related.

Anywho, looks like I'll just have to be patient with my naughty puppy. *sigh* Ahh well, here is hoping they fix it in a reasonable time frame.

[countfitz]

there is a bug with being able to summon multiple invisible puppies. Since this could be used by players to some advantage i cant say more.

This. It's an exploit players can use to their advantage.

You're welcome OP. The Devs will nerf this in half an hour now.

But the bug fixes we've needed for years...

But seriously. I don't even have an artificer. That was a joke. I hope.

[tu_mater]

I've also noticed the submissive dog while running my arti. He runs up to the mob then sits down in front of them like he is going to pee all over the himself. Very annoying! I wanted a ferocious iron defender not a submissive peeing poodle. (can I say pee or peeing in here?)

I tended to notice this bug most often right after leaving the ship. However dismissing then re-summoning seemed to help. So I started not letting my dog get ship buffs, and the problem pretty much went away. I have since started letting my dog get the resist buffs and these don't seem to cause any problems for him.

I have also noticed the disappearing dog trick. This one mainly happens if I enter something like a cave then exit it again. If it has a door he seems to do just fine but if it is a portal or open entrance to another area he seems to lose his body somewhere. Probably the astral plane.

[Aeolwind]

Mine gets off maybe 2-3 attacks near the start of the dungeon then never attacks again. Does nothing but taunt the rest of the dungeon. He runs up to mobs and then just stands there waiting for taunt to recycle. Won't trip, won't attack, juuuuuuust stands there.

[deahamlet]

Did any of the quests involve the dog going up or down a ladder?

If yes, he will do the hovering and the walking up to the enemy without doing a thing to the enemy.

I have found that dismissing does not fix it most times while in quest, sleeping at shrine also doesn't... Dismissing out of quest does seem to fix it.

Another one is if I get the pet to hold still in a spot, if I forget to call him to me before finishing out... he's stuck in the dungeon. He won't teleport to me out of the dungeon, I can't dismiss it, I have to restart client.

Very buggy pet.

[Adrenas]

Do any of you have obedience training? Just wondering if maybe that enhancement might cause the dog to attack less or something. I haven't selected obedience or hunter of boxes yet because i'm unsure of the effects. So i'm going around asking other arti's with those enhancements if they noticed any significant behavior changes from them.

[deahamlet]

I have hunter of boxes, it's not the problem.
The problem existed before they introduced hunter of boxes.

I will say that it doesn't happen to everyone's pet though.
I was hanging out with a lower level arti and his pet never bugged.

[SpearKicker]

My pet is also doing this. Usually, when I log, he attacks for a quest or two. Then he starts the taunt thing. Runs for the enemy and stand still. Usually just get fixed when I relog. I didnt tryed to dismiss him yet. Will try thin evening.

[Dendrix]

I get this a lot. Summon dog, do ship buffs. do a quest - gernerally OK.
exit first quest, run to a second quest - dog becomes submissive, only uses his trip ability on mobs and does not attack.

If I dismiss and resummon the dog between missions or summon afresh in the mission that seems to be OK.

[Postumus]

My pet will always go into submissive mode at some point. Always.

I haven't timed how long it takes, but I'd be surprised if he lasts an entire quest without turning into a 'pointer.'

My experience seems to be similar to other posters in this thread. It doesn't seem to matter which enhancements I use, or even if I don't use any at all. It always happens.

[thx.janus]

I think that this floaty, passive behavior only happens when your dog climbs a ladder. I had the same issues (or better, still have them) and now try to tell the dog to stand still if there are any ladders nearby. Because of Hunter of Boxes, he sometimes runs of and i'm not quick enough to call him back, but i have much less trouble with that bug now.

[azrael4h]

I've had the same problem. Killing the **** dog occasionally works to fix him but most often it just goes back to garbage.

I've just shelved my arty. Screw it, not going to bother leveling a character that half of it is broken beyond use.

[Talon_Moonshadow]

This happens to mine a lot too. Although mine is chaotic and I usually see him stop right in front of a box and stay there.

moving him helps slightly. but it is not a consistant thing (as far as I can tell). cause he'll have trouble sometimes, but other times works perfectly fine for very long periods of time.

[Galeria]

Mine does the same. Kinda like this:

[SpearKicker]

mine does the same. Kinda like this:

lol

[Osco]

Just bought arti today, and having this same problem. Died to a named spider in Smuggler's Warehouse because of it. I'm seriously thinking of renaming him "Furby" tomorrow, as he's about as useful in combat as one.

[Cyiwin]

This bug makes the dog more trouble than it's worth, I've stopped using it altogether. I hope Turbine is working on it, I don't see it on their known issues page.

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=150534